ABSTRACT
The following three facts must be taken into account for the purpose of assessing the situation in the South China Sea:
China–US relations are not confident at all. Mistrust between the two countries could be the master word, even if both are trying to do their utmost to keep a kind of dialogue, including in the field of defense, in order to avoid incidents that could degenerate into clashes.
It is quite normal that any country in the world wants to ensure its defense as best as possible. However, it may happen that the defensive concerns may become aggressive towards one’s neighbors, because the concerned country feels itself obstructed in the implementation of the general scheme it has elaborated to organize its defense.
This is the case for China which, beyond the exchanges of courteous visits and good occasional words, considers the US as a potential hostile party, just as the US is not confident at all in future Chinese peaceful behavior.
Except North Korea, all the neighboring countries of the two China seas are deeply concerned by the Chinese rising military power.
