Philip Heijmans of Bloomberg tells his readers that tensions are soaring, but Southeast Asian nations are struggling to push back on Beijing’s contested claims and the ability to tap the energy resources their growing economies need. He writes:
This was supposed to be the year that Vietnam reaped the benefits from one of its largest natural gas discoveries.
An estimated 150 billion cubic meters of the fuel, enough to power a city the size of Hanoi for decades, was discovered 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Vietnam’s central coast in 2011. If all had gone to plan, the “Blue Whale” project led by Exxon Mobil Corp. would have gone online late last year. […]
“The United States might help assist the Philippines in constructing a more capable coast guard force,” said Ketian Zhang, an assistant professor of international security at George Mason University and author of China’s Gambit: The Calculus of Coercion. “But short of an armed attack on Philippine assets in the South China Sea, it is unlikely that the United States would get involved militarily.”
Read more here.
