Fingering War in the South China Sea

"A cool head is for losers. To prevent war, you must start one," says a sea of flag-waving chauvinists. 🤡

The Washington Post just reported on events in the South China Sea with a story headlined, “Philippines Says Sailor Lost Finger in Sea Clash, Accuses China of ‘Piracy.’”

The gist:

According to Philippine officials, Chinese vessels on Monday rammed Philippine ships to stop them from resupplying a warship, the Sierra Madre, beached on a half-submerged reef…The Chinese coast guard used knives and machetes to puncture Philippine rubber dinghies…A Philippine sailor lost a finger when a Chinese dinghy collided with a Philippine dinghy at high speed, hitting his hand, which was caught between the two vessels…At least seven other Philippine sailors were also injured…

With the exception of the accidentally lost finger, this has been an ongoing saga in how China’s “maritime militia” have been operating in the South China Sea (SCS) for some time—assertively, and in contravention of international law, yet non-violently in the sense of militarized conflict.

It’s a bit sensationalized, but also documenting a very real thing. What’s missing, as usual, is how to make sense of it—the diagnosis directs us to the prescription.

Some of the more overtly anti-China China watchers (which is most of them?) were quick to agitate for military action. To wit:

The MDT refers to the Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and the Philippines. As someone who has spent perhaps too much time with military history, I assure you what’s going on in those screenshots is not what an “armed attack” looks like. Nevertheless, there is something going on here that deserves explanation.