Territorial disputes over islands in the South China Sea have long been a latent threat to regional security and cooperation in East Asia, involving not only China and some of its Southeast Asian neighbors, but also members of ASEAN. For instance, sovereignty disputes over certain South China Sea islands also exist among the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Creative cartography [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn]

To solve these disputes requires diplomatic wisdom and political resolve. Close political and socioeconomic ties between China and ASEAN countries will also provide reliable guarantees of a solution to these disputes. The U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific, a policy rolled out in 2011 by President Obama, however, has cast a pall over the issue. Motivated by hegemonic interests, the U.S. plays dual roles in the region – those of protector and rabble-rouser. Under its connivance, certain countries seize every opportunity to make trouble. This does not help to solve disputes in the South China Sea, but rather exacerbates tensions in the region.

Two recent incidents presage major inflexions in U.S. policy on the South China Sea. The first is the statement by Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council, on January 30. "We have been very clear with the Chinese that we would see that [the establishment of a new air zone] as a provocative and destabilizing development that would result in changes in our presence and military posture in the region," Mr Medeiros told Kyodo, the Japanese news agency. It is unusual for an NSC senior official to articulate such sharp rhetoric on the South China Sea issue.

On February 5, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said in congressional testimony that China's territorial claims in the South China Sea had, "created uncertainty, insecurity and instability" among its neighbors. "There are growing concerns that this pattern of behavior in the South China Sea reflects incremental effort by China to assert control over the area contained in the so-called 'nine-dash line' despite objections of its neighbors and despite the lack of explanation or apparent basis under international law regarding the scope of the claim itself," Russel told the House of Representatives subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. This is the first time the U.S. has asked for China's clarification of the "nine-dash line." It is also unprecedented that a senior U.S. official should so bluntly disavow China's claims to the area contained within the line.