In April 2014, I asked the question in my blog about the message being sent to China about territory snatching behavior based on Russian activity in Crimea (see this entry). On Friday June 26 the number two diplomat in the U.S. State Department, Antony Blinken, offered this comparison of the two:
"In both eastern Ukraine and the South China Sea, we’re witnessing efforts to unilaterally and coercively change the status quo — transgressions that the United States and our allies stand united against."
For my two cents, if you read my original post, the U.S. sent signals that the Chinese interpreted as go signs for territory snatching. Our government did nothing about Russia snatching the Crimea other than lip service. It took months of wrangling to get some materials sent to help Ukraine and some advisors sent to help train Ukrainian forces. Economic sanctions you say, welcome to reality, economic sanctions rarely ever been effective deterrents and have only once that I can think of off-hand (South Africa) played a major role in causing a government to reverse course on domestic policy. Economic sanctions are just the international community saying shame on you. Has Iran suddenly become a nicer place? Has North Korea stopped being a pain in the you know what? So it only took the State Dept. 14 months to figure out that what China is doing is similar to what Russia did last year. Way to go State Dept.
"In both eastern Ukraine and the South China Sea, we’re witnessing efforts to unilaterally and coercively change the status quo — transgressions that the United States and our allies stand united against."
For my two cents, if you read my original post, the U.S. sent signals that the Chinese interpreted as go signs for territory snatching. Our government did nothing about Russia snatching the Crimea other than lip service. It took months of wrangling to get some materials sent to help Ukraine and some advisors sent to help train Ukrainian forces. Economic sanctions you say, welcome to reality, economic sanctions rarely ever been effective deterrents and have only once that I can think of off-hand (South Africa) played a major role in causing a government to reverse course on domestic policy. Economic sanctions are just the international community saying shame on you. Has Iran suddenly become a nicer place? Has North Korea stopped being a pain in the you know what? So it only took the State Dept. 14 months to figure out that what China is doing is similar to what Russia did last year. Way to go State Dept.
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