ABSTRACT
Consciously and unconsciously, the long-running South China Sea dispute has been used as a means of illuminating the sometimes ambiguous intentions and policies of the countries around it. This is particularly true as far as Chinawatching is concerned. At a time when China was being analysed as either a potential collaborator in the maintenance of the world order or as a possible threat to it, Chinese policy in the South China Sea was seen as a useful indicator of the country’s future role both in the region and globally. Thus the “rise, decline and potential re-birth of China as a maritime power in Asia is the grey eminence lurking behind the scenes of the dispute over the islands and waters of the basin.”1
