This sort of thing was obviously on the horizon as far back as 1991.
One of the things I used to confuse people with at cocktail parties was
"Ever been to the Spratly Islands?"
It was one of a number of places in the SCC that China was trying to establish rights to, at the expense of countries like Viet Nam and the Philippines.
It's only gonna get worse. Those of us who learned to see the world economic model as based on the Pacific Rim in the future (put yourself in Pearl Harbor, or Wake, as your center point, and see the area of interest as all of the shores the Pacific reaches from there) were shouted down as China grew into a serious threat during the 90's.
The money was too good, ya see ...
And the rest of what I have to say is
