The NYTimes reports:

New rules announced by a Chinese province last week to allow interceptions of ships in the South China Sea are raising concerns in the region, and in Washington, that simmering disputes with Southeast Asian countries over the waters will escalate.

Wu Shicun, the director general of the foreign affairs office of Hainan Province, said Saturday that Chinese ships would be allowed to search and repel foreign ships only if they were engaged in illegal activities (though these were not defined) and only if the ships were within the 12-nautical-mile zone surrounding islands that China claims.

“It covers all the land features inside the nine-dash line and adjacent waters,” Mr. Wu said. The nine-dash line refers to a map that China drew up in the late 1940s that demarcates its territorial claims — about 80 percent of the South China Sea, whose seabed is believed to be rich in oil and natural gas.

That map forms the basis for China’s current claims. Some neighboring countries were outraged when China recently placed the nine-dash map on its new passports.

Here, the true imperialistic behaviour of the PRC rears its ugly face, first by staking claims of the East China Sea, and now, the South China Sea. To make their claims more “legitimate”, they print their interpretation of maps onto their own passports.

It’s not as if the PRC lacks land, or natural resources. It behaves like a growing-up, greedy little spoilt child.

“A big worry for neighboring countries and countries outside the region is that China is growing so rapidly, and they see it is possible China taking over the islands by force,” he said. “I think China needs to convince neighboring countries that this is not the case.” Essentially, he said, countries had to trust that China would not use force in the sea.

I’m very certain that the PRC will have no qualms of using force in the region. After all, they had no issues killing their own people at their whims and fancy.

“In Asean, there is an unwillingness to confront China; they are hopelessly divided,” said [Bonnie Glaser of the Center for Strategic and International Studies].

ASEAN is a joke, with split and selfish loyalties. Similarly, the USA has its hands tied back home. Although they may have rebalanced their Naval fleet for more emphasis on the Pacific, they need a stronger diplomatic front.

Given the escalating tensions in Asia, no thanks to the imperialistic intentions of the PRC, I’m quite certain we are in for a difficult time. Peace has had its good run.

The least we can do is to reduce our economic incentives and contributions to the PRC—boycott products solely designed and produced by the PRC.

Would you bear to let the PRC be a major power in the world?

Update: Interestingly, Apple was confirmed to be relocating some manufacturing of its products back to the USA. The rumoured Mac Pro in 2013?