Bill Hayton, Foreign Policy: Is Tillerson Willing to Go to War Over the South China Sea?
The Exxon boss has shown before he can take Beijing to the limit — but as Secretary of State the stakes will be far higher.
Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon chief, didn’t get where he is by being nice to China. When Beijing tried to force his company to abandon a gas exploration project in the waters off Vietnam in 2008, ExxonMobil showed it the finger. BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and several others caved to Chinese pressure. ExxonMobil is still there, drilling on a Vietnamese license in waters also claimed by China.
Is Tillerson about to do the same on behalf of the United States? On Wednesday, the secretary of state-designate seemed ready to give China the finger again. He called on the incoming Trump administration to deny China access to the seven artificial island bases it has built in the southern part of the South China Sea.
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WNU Editor: The U.S. strategy against China will not focus on using U.S. military strength .... instead .... the U.S. will focus on trade and economics to put pressure on the Chinese to step back. International trade is what is financing China's economic boom and it is its Achilles Heel. Curtail that by even a little bit .... through tariffs, penalties and/or restrictions on companies investing in China .... will impact China's policy goals and stability. How China will respond to this type of action is open to debate .... but they are already hinting to everyone that they should expect the worse .... Chinese Media Has Told Rex Tillerson to ‘Prepare for a Military Clash’ (Time).
