My Take | How Western allies subvert international law and norms to ‘contain’ China
- The US has been ruthlessly militarising what some Pentagon strategists have called the island chains of defence in the Indo-Pacific with quiet ‘Five Eyes’ help
There are many straits and passages with unfamiliar names across the Indo-Pacific. Some are potential flashpoints in the event of a regional war. The Taiwan Strait is the best known. Others are more obscure but nevertheless strategically important for military access and supply as well as hi-tech spying such as penetrating undersea internet cables.
That’s why the United States has been busy fortifying what some Pentagon strategists have called the first, second and even third island chains of “defence” against China.
In some cases, though, the US and its close allies Britain and Australia are doing it in defiance of international law and norms, United Nations advisories and/or global consensus.
While Western media incessantly report on Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea, their own governments’ activities and duplicities over much larger regions are rarely mentioned.
Consider the three cases of the Chagos Archipelago, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and some Pacific island states in Oceania. Together, they cover large swathes of maritime defence for the Western powers.
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
