Asian Waters: The Struggle Over the South China Sea and the Strategy of Chinese Expansion

by Humphrey Hawksley

Overview

“Seamlessly connects geography, history and great power intrigue across the entire Indo-Pacific region, increasingly the fulcrum of world history.” —James Clad, Director, Asian Security Programs at the American Foreign Policy Council

In the sphere of future global politics, no region will be as hotly contested as the Asia-Pacific, where great power interests collide amid the mistrust of unresolved conflicts and disputed territory. This is where authoritarian China is trying to rewrite international law and challenge the democratic values of the United States and its allies. The lightning rods of conflict are remote reefs and islands from which China has created military bases in the 1.5-million-square-mile expanse of the South China Sea, a crucial world trading route that this rising world power now claims as its own. No other Asian country can take on China alone.

In Asian Waters, award–winning foreign correspondent Humphrey Hawksley breaks down the politics—and tensions—that he has followed through this region for years. Reporting on decades of political developments, he has witnessed China's rise to become one of the world's most wealthy and militarized countries, and delivers in Asian Waters the compelling narrative of this most volatile region. Can the United States and China handle the changing balance of power peacefully? Do Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan share enough common purpose to create a NATO-esque multilateral alliance? Does China think it can even become a superpower while making an enemy of America? If so, how does it plan to achieve it? Asian Waters delves into these topics and more as Hawksley presents the most comprehensive and accessible analysis ever of this region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468314786
Publisher:	Abrams Press
Publication date:	06/05/2018
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Humphrey Hawksley is an award-winning BBC correspondent and the author of numerous titles on global politics, foreign policy, and democracy. He has written for the Guardian, the Times, Financial Times, and other publications.

Table of Contents

Maps 7

Preface 13

Part 1 China 23

1 The Story of a South China Sea Fisherman 25

2 The Great Wall of the Sea 35

3 Wars That Never End 40

4 Chinese Islands 50

Part 2 Southeast Asia 57

5 A Tapestry of Values 59

6 The Philippines: A Precarious Tightrope 71

7 Asian Democracy: Why I Didn't Shoot the President 83

8 Vietnam: Don't Mess with Us 94

Part 3 South Asia 109

9 India: The Violence of Poverty 111

10 India, Pakistan, and the Bomb 125

11 Where Is India's Monroe Doctrine? 134

Part 4 East Asia 149

12 Japan: Asia's First Industrial Power 151

13 The United States: War Games and Black Swans 164

14 North Korea: The Moon Landing and the Beatles 171

15 The Technology Race: Cyberwarfare and Warfare in Space 181

16 Taiwan: A Divided Family 192

17 The Heart of the Matter 215

Part 5 Great Power Status 233

18 A Parallel World Order 235

19 Who Is in Charge? 251

20 A Fault-Line Gamble 260

Selected Bibliography 265

Acknowledgments 271

About the Author 275

Index 277

Editorial Reviews

05/28/2018
Hawksley (Democracy Kills), a BBC journalist who worked and lived in Asia for decades, provides a clear introduction to the subject of Chinese efforts to expand the country’s sovereignty into the islands of the South China Sea. The book is based primarily on secondary sources, the author’s observations and analysis, and interviews with key leaders in the region. The first part of the book explores China’s perspective; Hawksley says that China sees itself as a dominant global power, humiliated by Western colonialism generally and the Opium Wars specifically, whose recent moves are merely reasserting the position it held over thousands of years. Parts two to four consider the experience of China’s neighbors: India, which Hawksley argues has been “dwarfed economically and encircled” by China; the Philippines, which he thinks likely to cozy up to China; and Japan, China’s biggest potential rival for dominance in the region. This is a solid overview, but one place where it falls short is the lack of discussion of U.S. policy regarding Chinese expansion and the relative military capabilities of the two nations. Despite this shortcoming, this volume is informative and thought-provoking and will be of interest to anyone interested in Asia, contemporary affairs, national security issues, and foreign policy. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Asian Watersplays a critical role in defining India's importance in the evolving geo-strategic matrix. . . . To understand the new Indo-Pacific region, Asian Waters is a must read.”

Major General Ashok K. Mehta

Asian Waters is a timely,detailed and balancedexamination of one of the crucial geo-political fault-lines of the twenty-first century. Its insights and analysisaccurately mapthe complexity of the situation in the Asia-Pacific region,the choices open to policy-makers anda range ofoutcomes that could lead tocooperation, confrontation or conflict.”

Admiral Chris Parry CBE

Humphrey Hawksley is without doubt a master storyteller. . . . Great power politics will define Asia’s future path. But in order to see what may lie ahead, it is critical to understand the people, the personalities, and the psychologies that drive the decision-making processes. Hawksley’s ability to do just that is second to none.

Shihoko Goto

Hawksley' s writing style is accessible even when his subject grows more complex, ranging from geographic diversity to narration about history and politics. This book is a helpful primer to better understand the tools available to those formulating the South China Sea policy.
Whether it is navigating on the political waves in East Asia, or exploring the great power status, the book offers a generous insight.

Dr. Wu Shicun

Humphrey Hawksley has long and rich experience of life in Asia, and has used this to inform this lucid,
lively account of the frontier if Chinese aspirations—the region in which it sits. It is here that the true face of Chinese power is being revealed—the waters of Asia. There are fewer better guides to this than Mr. Hawksley.

Kerry Brown

A readable and very well-informed guide to an area of real tension in the early decades of this century.

Baron Lord Patten of Barnes

Humphrey Hawksley spent decades in Asia’s many trouble spots. InAsian Waters, he now focuses his immense skills at forensic political analysis to dissect 21stcentury Asia’s latest trouble spot, the South China Sea, where a rising and increasingly assertive China questions the international order based on the rule of law. A fascinating read.”

Hardeep Puri

With his solid, on-the-ground experience and incisive analysis derived from decades of first rate reportage, Humphrey Hawksley provides new ways of seeing and understanding the shifting balance of world power, a change of monumental significance for this century. Asian Waters seamlessly connects geography, history and great power intrigue across the entire Indo-Pacific region, increasingly the fulcrum of world history. His conclusions are surprising and often disturbing, but always based on the evidence. This book is a must-read.”

James Clad

Day by day the inherent tension between Chinese strategic ambition, American desire to rule the waves, Asian neighbors' territorial claims and the panoply of international law and conventions moves closer to snapping point. The South China Sea is the place where the legacies of the 20th century come smack into confrontation with the new realities of the 21st.Asian Watersdeserves to be widely read and debated, all over the world.”

Bill Emmott

Asian Waters . . .recently became my ideal travel companion on a long flight to Australia, en route to the South China Sea. For any other reader hoping to navigate those troubled waters, or seeking a broad overview of the geopolitical fault lines in Asia, Hawksley’s book provides an excellent guide.”

Jonas Parello-Plesner - The American Interest

Hawksley has a knack for delivering pointed arguments and parallels amid a concise array of key historical events.

Susan Froetschel - YaleGlobal Online

In Asian Waters,Hawksley's latest and his best book to date . . . more than just an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the region awaits the reader. . . .For both students and practitioners of foreign policy, his book is a must read.”

Harlan Ullman - United Press International

A vivid and highly readable guide to one of the great flash points of the
21st century.

Gideon Rachman