ABSTRACT
The journalist Malcolm Gladwell published The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Many commentators suggest that is China’s strongest leader since Mao, pointing in particular to the decision of the March 2018 National People’s Congress to remove the traditional two-term limit on the presidency and essentially to allow to remain China’s leader for life. As Asia’s skies and strategic waterways become more crowded and contested, the potential for an inadvertent clash between military ships or aircraft is also rising. The US naval analyst Bernard Cole has developed a detailed hypothetical scenario in which escalation could occur from an inadvertent clash between Chinese and Taiwanese vessels operating in close proximity. Drawing comparisons with that earlier clash, a US warship and a Chinese destroyer came within approximately 40 metres of each other in September 2018.
