U.S. invisible hand behind South China Sea tension: South African commentator

The United States, in a very real sense, has been the invisible hand behind the rising tension in the South China Sea, a well-known South African commentator said in a commentary published in The Star newspaper on Friday.

It becomes tiresome to continue unravelling stories of the United States meddling in regions far away from its shores, trying to weaken other countries in order to maintain its global dominance, said Shannon Ebrahim.

"Why does the U.S. feel it has the right to endanger Chinese national security interests in the South China Sea?" she asked in the article titled "Islands that could lead to war."

The more one delves into the reality of the South China Sea issue, it becomes clearer that the United States actually thinks it has a right to manipulate regional dynamics in China's backyard so as to encircle it as a rising superpower, Ebrahim said.

"What is more incredible is that the U.S. believes it has the right to send 60 percent of its naval fleet and 60 percent of its overseas air force into the South China Sea by 2030. If this is not the ultimate display of arrogance then I don't know what is," she said.

Referring to the U.S. concern of freedom of navigation, Ebrahim said, "But China is equally committed to this principle, and has never attempted to hinder trade navigation in any way."

"In this case, China has international law on its side," she said.

"Despite attempts by neighboring countries to encroach onto the islands and take them over, China has proof of its sovereignty over them, going back centuries," Ebrahim wrote.

The history of Chinese people living and working on the South China Sea islands dates back to China's Han Dynasty some 2,000 years ago.

China has been seeking dialogue with its neighbors and advocating joint development of the South China Sea. But the U.S. Asia-Pacific re-balancing strategy that President Barack Obama introduced in 2009 has escalated tension, Ebrahim noted.

"In a very real sense the U.S. has been the invisible hand behind the rising tension, conducting joint naval exercises with claimants, orchestrating confrontational incidents with Chinese naval vessels, and even giving partial recognition to the Philippines' unilateral renaming of the South China Sea to the West Philippines Sea," Ebrahim wrote.

The United States, she said, has encouraged claimants to step up their efforts to take over the islands by engaging in joint exercises with the Philippines in the region. Endi