China needs to take a couple of step back and develop a more conciliatory attitude and stance, least she forces all those she is offending to form an united front as strange bedfellows and allies who understand that divided they fall and are easy targets for a increasingly belligerent China.

But united, unbreakable and undefeatable!

Simply put, they need to set aside their current differences in the face of a far more hostile and dangerous potential adversary, reach an agreement they can all live with, (joint ventures) or keep arguing amongst themselves, get trampled under and lose it all!
Rhrosty.

How would we react if China claimed and developed Lord Howe Island?

A good article.

Turnbull's first major foreign policy statement criticised China "pushing the envelope" in the South China Sea. Turnbull was aiming this at sober Chinese, US and Southeast Asian government consideration rather than popular alarm making. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-21/china-is-pushing-the-envelope-in-south-china-sea-turnbull/6793102

Australia's active role in Freedom Of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) overflights in the South China Sea should not be forgotten. These are RAAF overflights over Chinese claimed seaspace surrounding key Chinese island bases. http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/nearly-all-australian-patrols-in-south-china-sea-are-challenged-by-china/

Australia is playing it low-key as is appropriate to a middle power whose main trade partner is China. Escalating to higher Australian navy ship confrontation would only play into the hands of some Chinese "rightwing" military factions who seek confrontation.

Pete

I have worked and lived in China for 5 years and do not doubt that China will "do whatever it takes" to protect? secure its own interests. The takeover or 'liberation' of Tibet is a similar scene - how long had they been 'out of the sphere' of China until they were 'colonized' by the ample bosom of Motherland China with history adroitly changed to read the 'right way'? Even the CIA got involved for a while until Nixon told them to back off and leave the Freedom Fighters to their own fate - in the national interests of 'Chamberlain-type' appeasement to the Honourable? Helmsman Mao Tzunge. Aust PM's may be 'somewhat reluctant' to upset the Chinese, particularly if they, later decide to swallow more mountains of iron ore if their economy doesn't collapse in the meantime and a good solidarity issue like the claimed island ownership diverts citizens from criticizing the Party - an old trick echoing from re-raising endlessly Japan's rape of Nanjing to divert domestic focus away from Party incompetence and corruption.

There's an enormous amount of ignorance of South-East Asian history in China's claims. Traders have been sailing across those seas for at least a couple of thousand years, while China's claim, for example to the Scarborough Shoals just off the Filipino coast rest on a visit from Cheng Ho in about 1420.

Even in those days, the Indianised kingdoms across south-east Asia were trading with the Philippines, and had been for centuries: there's reputed to be an old Hindu temple in Manila (and actually one in Canton too). Trade between Thai States and Japan at about that time was greater than China's total trade. Arabs and east-coast (Coromandel Coast) Indians traded all across that region.

After all, China had never been a maritime power before Cheng Ho, and closed its doors on that soon after his expeditions, burning all his maps. The notion that, for example, there were no links between the Philippines and the trading kingdoms of Angkor and Champa (central Vietnam) - and between Vietnam and the Philippines - is ludicrous.

And those shoals would have been fished for thousands of years by Filipino sea-living tribes, and most likely they had actually built floating villages in the Scarborough Shoals long before Cheng Ho was out of nappies.

Here's a puzzle: Cheng Ho was supposed to be Uighur, kidnapped as a young man. How on earth did he become a renowned sailor ? The answer may have something to do with his being Muslim, and being able to tap into all that rich knowledge of navigation that would have been around in Canton, not just amongst Muslims but Indians, Thais, Malays, etc., as well - in Canton, where he prayed at a mosque before he left, by the way, so there were Arab and Indian communities in Canton back in 1420.

Joe

Hi Joe

You've done some great research undermining China's claims.

China also claims that the name alone "South China Sea" means the Sea belongs to China.

Pete