The news that China deployed surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets to the disputed Paracel Islands is only the latest example of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive posture over its claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea. China’s island-building and subsequent militarization efforts are part of a broader strategy to reduce American influence in the region, but these moves have come with a regional cost: China’s neighbors have competing claims over the islands in question, and they are turning to the United States to serve as a counterbalance to Beijing. The U.S. should capitalize on this opportunity to broaden and deepen its ties to the other countries in the Western Pacific.
Beijing has long feared becoming bottled up by the U.S. via the “first island chain” – a set of islands and archipelagos including Borneo, Taiwan, and the Japanese Archipelago that surround the eastern coast of Asia – in the event of a military conflict. Chinese military doctrine has therefore placed an emphasis on breaking free from these constraints, and China’s activities vis-a-vis the Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea should be seen as an outgrowth of that doctrine; in theory, Chinese military installations on these disputed islands allow for a significant uptick in China’s power projection capabilities.
However, allowing military doctrine to dictate Chinese foreign policy has, in this case, created unintended diplomatic consequences for Beijing.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/articles/2016-03-11/china-gave-the-us-an-opening-in-the-south-china-sea