Get Hold Of 南海：21世紀的亞洲火藥庫與中國稱霸的第一步？ Produced By Bill Hayton Accessible As Pamphlet

a new student of the South China Sea conflicts, this book gave a good description of events from the beginning of history as we know before lands were colonised, when people are known to be nomadic up to early.
The analysis was easy to follow and made sound reasoning, Each issue was analysed from historical context to current domestic and international situations, The behavior of each country and whys are well thought of, Although, i lack reading yet on what they would argue in return,

It was an interesting read on the imbalance of power and the shifts within the region from then until now, who the real forces are, how the Communist Party of China is manipulating its peoples psych in order to reason out its actions, how truly the elite in any country is ready to do anything for their preservation can be argued to actually be human nature Informative and solid research, but not really my cup of tea in terms the style of writing history.
Hayton often chooses one unexpected character, goes into detail on that character's life and his/her role in the overall arch of history, Can't help but feeling that the author meddles a little too much with history by exercising his liberty of choosing who matters and telling history from that perspective but not going far enough to make it into a fun read.


The book does highlight some comforting truths:
, South China Sea's islands' economic value oil is probably blown oversized and is also becoming increasingly insignificant as China's economy grows gt so maybe not worth a standoff with other SEA states.

. China is not just a bully, its access to the open sea is indeed, blocked

by all the smaller SEA states gt a semilegitimate sense of insecurity, I kind of question the accuracy of this book, There is definitely a lack of citations and proofs when it comes to some important claims he is making, That's partially why I don't like reading books not written by academics,

Some examples:
, “It meant European colonialism was merely the continuation of a longestablished pattern of behavior in Southeast Asia, ” I think European colonialism has totally different characteristics, It's a product of capitalism that is not comparable to any other form of colonialism before,
. “Some nationalist Chinese historians argue that they prove Southeast Asian societies were vassals to Chinese emperors, This is how old Chinese texts tend to record them, However, contemporary Southeast Asian accounts suggest that tribute wasn't viewed as some kind of feudal relationship between master and servant but simply as a trading partnership, Chinese rulers welcomed this tribute as foreign recognition of their right to rule, ” From my personal reading and understanding of Chinese culture, "Chinese rulers welcomed this tribute as foreign recognition of their right to rule, ” is definitely an incorrect statement, The author didn't provide any reference for this statement,
Does this book date, like a journalistic tome
No, Its basis is in historical occurrence, historical analysis and general understanding,

It doesn't take sides it's only real suggestion is in the very last sentence, The rest is a 'here is how it stands with all the players', It doesn't overly express any particular point of view apart from occasional humour concerning Freedomland for example, It doesn't make predictions, which would have been risky business for relevance,

It mentions certain legal disputes, which were resolved in the year following publication with the UN legal resolution in, However, the book is smart enough to say 'but it probably won't make any difference', Apart from that, the mention of a thinktank leader who is now dead he was ninetysomething when he retired, it avoids being tied to a particular time, It's value as knowledge will thus extend outwards,

And it's clear and readable, and occasionally makes humorous observations to keep this moving, A truly definitive guide to the issue, I've read lesser attempts at this, Even when, in decades time, the situation will change again to something unimaginable, this will STILL tell you a bunch of important things about one of the most important regions in the world.
An unparalleled overview of the South China Sea, its competing claimants, and interconnecting issues, Hayton's years of experience as a journalist show in his toplevel access to official sources and his ontheground research in remote locations, His writing is eloquent and witty with a healthy dose of realism, Ultimately, he ends on a hopeful note, which I found curious,.

"Weary readers of this book might, at this point, be wishing for a sizeable dose of climate change to raise sea level and submerge the features of the South China Sea altogether.
" Bill Hayton makes this joke readers will determine if it's in poor taste or merely dark very close to the end of an extensive examination of multiple claims by multiple nations to this and that piece of guanocovered rock in the sea under question as well as legitimate islands for the purpose of extending territorial boundaries.
There's an appalling display of patriotism, pride, chicanery, gall, beating of war drums, selfinterest, brinksmanship, and a refusal to abide by international laws, The main instigator of trouble is the chinese government, whose claims to islands or knobs of rock is often based on old tales that don't hold up to historical scrutiny.


Hayton's book was published in, Much has changed since the book came out, among them island building and military buildups in the disputed Spratly Islands by the chinese government and, more positively, increased trade, talks, and visits between the leaders of china, the philippines, vietnam, and landlocked laos.
While oil and fish are discussed at length, little is said of the ecological and environmental pressures of drilling for oil and gas in the sea, The South China Sea, nevertheless, is essential background reading for readers interested in the history of the region and wondering what might happen next in this fraught area involving the nations making up Asean Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as the United States.
Books like this tend to lie right in my sweet spot for social reading, A big current topic, written by a journalist, but one who has taken the time to seriously engage with the academic literature,

This is an excellent read for anyone interested in perhaps the hottest place for modern geopolitics since we all rediscovered Crimea on a map, The South China Sea is where we see the clearest expression of China's search for a new regional order and with it the region's response, including of course, the resident nonresident America.


'The South China Sea' makes a serious attempt to explore these contested water ways from a wide variety of angles, The chapters on the history of claims for the area, chocked full of absurd figures and ambitions, and the discussion of potential oil and gas resources in the area are excellent considerations.
Other chapters, such as on the military dimension or nationalism can feel a bit once over lightly, but they round out the book and will appeal to those who have not been following the issues closely.


The risk with books like this is the desire to justify attention and perhaps sell copies, leading to an overestimation of the significance and risks of the issue.
Thankfully, this book carefully avoids that, Most likely because Hayton, an experienced author and journalist for BBC changed his own mind as he notes in an endearing section at the end, Initially motivated by a fear of imminent conflict, he now thinks major war unlikely, especially because China would ultimately lose if not the shooting part, certainly the peace that followed.
Though this caution keeps the final conclusions at a moderate to low temperature, there is still much here that will grab the reader and make them think about how many risks there are, how many close calls there have already been, and how significant a conflict really could be.


While I enjoyed and appreciated this book, I did take a strangely long time to finish it, Perhaps that was just the sudden influx of work which has limited virtually all my reading, Or perhaps my taste's are changing, At times I wished for more substantive analysis and less discussions of fishermen looking out to sea as they had for decades as a way of introducing a new topic.


Still, I think this book gets the balance between journalistic capacity to engage and show you the view on the ground, combined with deep research of the history and wider analysis as you will find in the bookstores.
An excellent one volume take on a vital part of the world, .