Settling scores could backfire on US
Recent US rhetoric and moves on the South China Sea issue reflect its double standards. Its rhetoric is aimed at exaggerating the situation in the South China Sea to gain support for its "pivot to Asia" policy and prompt joint action against China by its neighbors, especially the Philippines and Japan, which have territorial disputes with China. And its actions are aimed at cornering China to "settle scores" after having miscalculated the effects of the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In other words, they reflect the US' rising worries over China's rise and the possibility of losing its supremacy in world affairs.
Without any legitimate stakes, the US has been trying to interfere in the South China Sea disputes on the fragile grounds of international laws and freedom of navigation. But such pretexts cannot convince people familiar with the real situation.
To begin with, the US, despite being a non-claimant state, has been devoting disproportionate attention to the issue to tilt the balance in favor of its allies. It has been talking about international laws, yet it has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Is that adherence to international law?
