March 9, 2017

"While the partisan turmoil in Washington absorbs the world's attention, the relationship between China and the U.S. iterates rapidly towards outright hostility. Of course, at moments of Presidential transition, there is a need for a new relationship to form, which can ruffle feathers on either side as diplomatic norms are reassessed and particular trouble spots come into focus. This particular transition, however, has seen escalation across the board partly as a result of the campaign polemics of President Trump, but no doubt some of this tension was coming anyway.

First of all, the 'One China' policy was called into question, a wrinkle eventually papered over with a phone call. Then the South China Sea boiled up again and the USS Carl Vinson took up station in an impressively assertive 'Freedom of Navigation Operation.' Now the stability of the Korean Peninsula teeters on the edge of conflict after North Korea fired four missiles towards Japan, followed by the U.S. bringing forward the deployment of its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) missile system to South Korea."

Read more:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/douglasbulloch/2017/03/09/how-to-decode-chinas-reaction-to-u-s-thaad-missile-deployment-in-south-korea/#52874215456c

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