China's Pacific expansion… In an environment where Russia's occupation of Ukraine is heavily on the agenda, more analysis is being made on the political aggression behaviors of different polarizations. At the forefront of this is China, Russia's most important diplomatic partner in terms of interests at the moment. It is important for this anti-American camp to expand its sphere of influence, as well as for the enemy camps to approach each other's borders. Naturally, no great power would want the unfriendly camp to rest on its sphere of influence.
Similar to the situation in Europe has been happening in the South Pacific for several years. From the late 1700s, British and other European ships were calling at Chinese ports to trade with Australia and the Pacific Islands. And it looks like China now wants to do the expansion that Japan did in the Second World War. China's attempts to expand its influence are not new, but their efforts appear to have doubled in the past three years.
South China Sea expansion and Taiwan issue… China has been claiming islands in the South China Sea since 1974. Now he's set his sights on and moving to seize control of the Dongsha islands. The Dongsha Islands are part of Taiwan. And according to China, there is no country called Taiwan and this is a province of China.
Of course, it is necessary to take a look at how Taiwan was founded. Following the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the nationalist government withdrew from the mainland as the Communists proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China. For many years, the PRC and the Republic of China continued to claim in the diplomatic arena that they were the only legitimate government of "China". In 1971 the United Nations expelled the Taiwanese government and replaced it with the PRC. China is putting significant diplomatic pressure on other countries not to recognize Taiwan or do anything that implies recognition.
As for why Taiwan is so important; Most of the world's everyday electronic equipment, from phones to laptops, watches and game consoles, is powered by computer chips made in Taiwan. The chip crisis is one of the most important problems of our time and one of the main causes of inflation. In China, on the other hand, there is a period of economic strain with increasing Covid cases, the Real Estate bubble and the Fed's interest rate hikes. The activities of the USA and its allies in the South China Sea, relations and cooperation with Taiwan are factors that will disturb the Chinese side.
China – Australia… Although there are strong bilateral trade relations between the two countries, political relations have declined considerably due to security issues. There are two issues that have come to the fore here recently: The first is the AUKUS pact that Australia established with the US and England. Under the agreement, the United States and the United Kingdom will help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines. China's interpretation of this pact is that it threatens regional peace and stability and undermines nonproliferation efforts.
Recently, there have been disagreements over maritime boundaries in the Indian and Pacific Ocean region. Beijing also claims large rights to hydrocarbon resources in the South China Sea. The US does not want China to make the countries of the region economically dependent and dominate. The Trump administration, for example, has blocked many countries from using Huawei's equipment on 5G networks. And in this war, China and Australia were on different sides. There is concern that AUKUS could make China aggressive about regional armament.
The second is; Agreement between China and the Solomon Islands. Under the agreement, the Solomon Islands can request China to send police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces to the country for a range of tasks such as maintaining social order. The deal has alarmed Australia in the Pacific, where concerns about China's intentions have grown for years. It is stated that the establishment of a base in the Solomon Islands by China, which is a strategic enemy, will significantly harm the security of Australia and New Zealand. As the event referenced from history; The crisis in 1962 is given when the Soviet Union deployed nuclear missiles to Cuba at America's southern gate.
Let's explain the position of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific as follows: While the Japanese invaded and took control of the region from the Philippines to Malaysia and Indonesia in the Second World War, the USA's Pacific connections and the Australia-New Zealand line were transferred to Guadalcanal. they also cut it. In the Japanese-US war that started after the Pearl Harbor attack, the most violent conflicts broke out on the main island of this state, the island of Guadalcanal.
Conclusion? Security risks are not only related to Europe, and the path opened by the war with Russia may also reveal the possibility of other fronts to be active, no matter how the crisis here ends. Military and political mobility, in a sense, is to provide advantageous tactical positioning in a possible conflict. And right now there is a race to hold these corners in the Pacific. The importance of the Pacific is as follows: Just as the Mediterranean was the center of world trade until the 1500s, geographical discoveries brought Atlantic trade to the fore, now the Pacific trade is a region that needs to be retained due to both the shortening of distances thanks to technology and its proximity to the centrality of production networks. The places where the superpowers meet change in every period according to their economic and geopolitical importance. No matter how the Russian crisis ends, China will somehow be involved.
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