China’s Dangerous $5 Trillion Dollar Bet: A South China Sea ADIZ?

This week the annual report to the U.S. Congress on China’s Military Power was released. It noted Beijing’s use of “low-intensity coercion” across the South China Sea and East China Sea. Its assessment stated that: “China often uses a progression of small, incremental steps to increase its effective control over disputed territories and avoid escalation to military conflict.” Recently those “incremental steps” have been getting bigger. Southeast Asian states have reacted in turn.