After my blog entry yesteday on the Myanmar by-elections, I had intended to say a bit more about how great power rivalry will play out in East Asia in the coming decades. But American academic Mark Valencia has done that nicely in his commentary piece "US pivot making waves in the region" (ST, 3 April, page A18). Here are extracts:
The US "pivot" towards Asia in foreign and defence policy has rattled the region. China perceives the US move as an attempt to constrain its "rise".
...[The Chief of US Naval Operations has] said that China's rising capability could limit US access to the South China Sea and that Washington will continue its efforts to ensure "freedom of navigation" there.
While Vietnam and the Philippines welcome the policy shift, other ASEAN nations are less sanguine. Indeed, some are outright worried that US-China rivalry will dominate regional political affairs and increas instability. Even Singapore, an American "strategic partner", cautioned the US against using extreme anti-China rhetoric in domestic political debate in this election year.
[This rivalry] has already begun to undermine ASEAN's attempts to maintain control of regional security management. Regarding the vexed South China Sea disputes, the US has essentially sided with the ASEAN claimants (its ally the Philippines, and Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam).
...The US has quickly begun to implement the pivot. It entered talks with the Philippines to expand its military presence there... It is also discussing with Thailand the deployment of American warships in the country. This is in addition to deploying new littoral combat ships to Singapore... and "rotating" up to 2,500 American troops to Darwin [Australia]...
[Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser] criticised the US military deployment to Darwin as "pointless", without reason, and unnecessarily dividing Australian public opinion.
...If China had any doubt about where Australia [and Singapore?] stood in the US "scheme of things", it doesn't now.
...Ratcheting up the pressure, the US has told ASEAN that it must come up with a common and clear position on a code [of coduct on the South China Sea] vis-a-vis China... [Such pressure] could split ASEAN on this issue.
[Meanwhile, apparently] at China's bidding, Cambodia, as current chair of ASEAN, removed the South China Sea from the agenda for this week's ASEAN summit -- much to the frustration of the Philippines and Vietnam...
...[As] China's military might grows and the US steps up its involvement in the region [assuming that there is no US policy reversal post-November presidential election], the window of opportunity for peaceful settlement of the South China Sea dispute is closing. [On this point, I have to disagree with Valencia. There never has been, or will ever be, such a window. Both big powers will now use the South China Sea to further "test" each other.]
-----------------------------------------
The weird stuff: Death by wriggling octopus? (AFP story)
After an investigation lasting many months, a South Korean has been arrested for allegedly killing his girlfriend who was initially believed to have accidentally suffocated while eating a live octopus.
The suspect identified only as Kim was formally arrested for murder last Friday and is expected to be charged.
The suspect, now 31, checked into a motel in the coastal city of Incheon with his girlfriend in April 2010 after buying two live octopuses from a local restaurant.
The man later called the hotel's reception to say his girlfriend had collapsed and stopped breathing after eating one of the octopuses. She died in hospital 16 days later due to brain damage.
Her family initially believed the 24-year-old woman surnamed Yoon suffocated after a tentacle was found stuck in her throat. Her body was later cremated.
But Yoon's father later discovered that his daughter had signed up for a life insurance policy a week before her death, with Kim as the beneficiary.
The story came to light after a TV station last year aired an interview with the father, who in September 2010 had asked prosecutors to investigate Kim.
Incheon police reopened the case and questioned Kim, who had collected 200 million won (US$189,400) in insurance money but denied any involvement in Yoon's death.
Police said earlier they suspected Kim might have stuffed the octopus into Yoon's throat or choked her with some other object such as a pillow.
Nakji, a small octopus native to Korean and Chinese waters, is a Korean delicacy with people swallowing still-wriggling portions.
----------------------------------------------
Here's what a dish of Nakji looks like...
----------------------------------------------
I should not end this blog entry on such a macabre note. Actually, there is an octopus song that I like: The Beatle's "Octopus's Garden". Here are two video clips, the first with lyrics to sing along to; and the other dreamscape-style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDYJkXktIg4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ufsWoAW4M4
No comments:
Post a Comment