US has forced itself into strategic dilemma

Has the relationship between China and the United States reached "a tipping point"? This question has become important at a time when the US seems to encourage some of China's neighbors to challenge Beijing's legitimate interests in the South China Sea.

Addressing Japan's upper house of parliament on June 3, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III audaciously, and wrongly, likened China to Nazi Germany citing the South China Sea disputes in an obvious attempt to invite Japan and the US to meddle in the region.

On June 1, US President Barack Obama did concede that "it may be that some of their (China's) claims are legitimate", but he still urged China to stop construction work on its own islands and islets. Of course, Obama turned a blind eye to the fact that the Philippines and Vietnam have already built outposts on the reefs they illegally occupy in the South China Sea.