News Story: Aggressive China is reshaping Asia, says Wall Street Journal

Chinese influence in Asia is growing stronger as China continues to push its claims to disputed territory in ways that other nations are finding it increasingly difficult to oppose, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Michael Auslin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a column on Japan and US-Asian relations for the newspaper that a worrisome trend of power politics in Asia will reshape the face of the region, evidenced by several events over the past week.

On one hand, Beijing announced last week that it will build lighthouses on five disputed islands in the South China Sea, undercutting rival claims by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan to the territories, Auslin said.

Also last week, the ASEAN Regional Forum, a consultative meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and other member nations, dismissed a US-backed proposal that no nation should take provocative actions in the South China Sea, he added.

Read the full story at Want China Times