- [Narrator] Salami slicing tactics.
It's not a method for cutting deli meats.
It's a military strategy
that China has used in the South China Sea.
This salami represents the sea.
Each slice is a portion of the region
that China has claimed over decades,
often angering its neighbors who hold competing claims.
And the US missed the moment to intervene,
in part because it was focused on working with China
to mediate other global issues in North Korea and Iran.
In that time, China occupied various coral reefs
and in some cases, turned them into artificial islands.
Today it controls 27 outposts across the sea,
largely in disputed areas,
which is why this mostly chopped up salami
represents the state of the sea
now that the US has taken a more critical stance
against China.
So what is it doing to counter Beijing?
The South China Sea is central to the Indo-Pacific
where 60% of the world's population lives.
Trillions of dollars worth of trade
passes through the sea each year.
According to the China Power Project
by the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
1/3 of all global trade transits the sea,
making many countries economically dependent
on the region.
It's critical to the US economy
because America imports around 90%
of its advanced microchips from Taiwan.
And roughly 14% of American maritime trade
transited the sea in 2016.
But in that same year, over 64%
of China's maritime trade passed through.
$874 billion.
China is the largest exporter of goods in the region.
And having control over more of the sea
would potentially give the PRC a lot of power
over the economies of the US and all of China's neighbors.
- It is because national security
is no longer simply about territorial defense.
Economic security is national security
- [Narrator] And that's why the disputes in the region
often focus on one big jargony term,
exclusive economic zones.
EEZs are areas in the sea where country has jurisdiction
over the resources.
They generally extend around 200 nautical miles.
(crowd chattering)
And because countries like Vietnam
and the Philippines rely on access to these areas,
China's encroachment has posed a problem
for their security and economies.
- So you hear the fishermen complaining
of China's aggressive action
and denying them the ability to fish
in our own exclusive economic zone, in our own waters.
- [Narrator] China says it has historical claims
to almost the entire South China Sea
based on a map from 1947 that illustrates dashes
cutting through the majority of the sea.
Fittingly, it's called the nine-dash line,
but that line cuts through EEZ claims
for five other countries.
To try and solidify its claim to the sea,
China has been incrementally occupying various islands
to slowly change the status quo, aka salami slicing.
It began this process in the 1970s
when it took control of the Paracel Islands from Vietnam.
In 1995, China occupied Mischief Reef
which was claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam.
And in 2012, it took Scarborough Shoal,
just 120 nautical miles west
of the Philippine Island of Luzon.
Then China started to build on the islands,
which concerned the US,
and prompted President Xi Jinping
to make this assurance in 2015.
- [Interpreter] We are committed to maintaining
peace and stability in the South China Sea
and China does not intend to pursue militarization.
- [Narrator] Not long after,
the US says the PRC broke its promise.
China now has 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands
and seven in the Spratlys,
several of which have aircraft hangers, missiles,
military jamming equipment, and other advanced systems.
Throughout this process,
some US officials expressed concern.
They said they repeatedly told the Chinese
they were making a mistake,
driving countries in the region closer to the US militarily
and herding China's ties with Washington.
And in 2016, something critical happened.
The Philippines brought China to an international tribunal
over its occupation of Filipino territories
and the Philippines won.
The Hague said that China's claims are illegal
and all the islands it had built
would not expand its exclusive economic zone.
But China boycotted the tribunal
and refused to recognize the ruling.
The US has taken steps to counter China in two ways;
boosting its military presence
and strengthening diplomatic relationships.
America and the Philippines have been mutual defense allies
since 1951, which means if either countries attacked,
the other must come to its aid.
In 2014, the US and the Philippines
signed the enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
The EDCA give America access
to five military bases in the Philippines
where the US can build infrastructure and rotate troops.
However, the two countries relations
have teetered over the years.
The previous president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte,
briefly strengthened relationships with China,
which in turn weakened the Philippines' ties to the US.
But the shift was short-lived, and by 2021,
the Philippines changed course.
This year
EDCA expanded to include four more bases
where the two countries ran their largest military trails
in decades.
- If it's an issue for the Philippines
in terms of international relations,
it's an issue for the United States
because we're a mutual defense treaty partner
and we will come to the aid of the Philippines
if they're attacked.
And I think it's as simple as that.
- [Narrator] In response to this growing cooperation,
China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning,
said it would escalate tensions
and endanger peace and stability in the region.
- Well, there's a superpower struggle.
There's the geopolitical competition, US and China,
but China is violating our sovereignty and sovereign rights.
And regardless of there is a competition,
we have an issue with China in that respect.
- [Narrator] The US also regularly conducts
freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.
FONOPs are meant to challenge China's claims in the sea
by demonstrating that the United States will fly,
sail, and operate wherever international law allows.
The PRC calls these FONOPs illegal.
Still, the US has strengthened its relationships
with other nearby nations
and encouraged some to run patrols through the sea as well.
In a recent call
with General Secretary Nguyen Pho Trong of Vietnam,
he and Biden discussed how to maintain
a free and open Indo-Pacific.
China and Vietnam have long held diplomatic relations
and Vietnam's economy relies on this relationship.
But like the Philippines,
Vietnam has also faced difficulties
operating in its own exclusive economic zone
due to China's encroachment and harassment.
This gave the US an opportunity to strengthen its ties
with yet another country in the South China Sea.
- We greatly value the relationships we have
with all of these countries in the region.
And there's one constant among all of them
and that is we respect their sovereignty
and that's where the PRC, I believe, is missing the mark
because they wanna operate on their own set of rules
and not respect the sovereignty
of the other existing nations in the region.
(brooding music)