China’s Caribbean Sea
By Francis P. Sempa
May 13, 2023AP
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At stake in the clash over Taiwan is not only control of the South China Sea, but also control of what Nicholas Spykman called the “Asiatic Mediterranean” and its islands and littorals. The outcome may determine whether this region of the western Pacific remains a vital international maritime artery or becomes China’s Caribbean Sea. To put it in classical geopolitical terms: Who controls the South China Sea commands the Asiatic Mediterranean; who commands the Asiatic Mediterranean controls Asia; and who controls Asia commands the destinies of the world.
The Asiatic Mediterranean consists of the region’s marginal seas. This includes the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea; the series of island chains that form successive geographical arcs that define the eastern boundaries of those marginal seas; and the straits (Malacca, Sunda, Lombock) that serve as sea arteries connecting the Asiatic Mediterranean to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Spykman called it “an insular world par excellence.” In 1942, he warned that a “modern, vitalized, and militarized China . . . is going to be a threat . . . to Japan . . . [and] to the position of the Western Powers in the Asiatic Mediterranean.” In 1944, he warned that China would emerge as the dominant power in the Far East after World War Two, and urged U.S. policymakers to establish bases in Japan, the Philippines, and elsewhere in the region to contain China’s geopolitical ambitions.
In his famous “Old Soldiers Never Die” address to a joint session of Congress in April 1951, General Douglas MacArthur characterized this region as America’s “strategic frontier,” which we control “to the shores of Asia by a chain of islands extending in an arc from the Aleutians to the Marianas.” “From this island chain,” MacArthur said, “we can dominate with sea and air power every Asiatic port from Vladivostok to Singapore--and prevent any hostile movement into the Pacific.”
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/05/13/chinas_caribbean_sea_899278.html
