(October 17, 2015)- China’s President Xi Jinping did provide no definition to the term “militaritization” for its actions in the South China Sea, and in the view of Bonnie Glaser, the senior adviser for Asia and director of China Power Project at Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), she suspected that US and China really do have different understanding about this.
“I think demilitarization in South China Sea is not achievable. The question is – what is achievable? So I like to be a little bit more constructive on what we got. I think maybe it is potential to have militarization, so the claimants could agree, for example, on weapon system and capabilities that would not be deployed on land features in South China Sea.”, she added.
Bonnie, from Washington D.C, made her keynote speech on the Boston Global Forum’s conference, “Dangerous Situation and Solutions for Peace and Security
in the South China Sea”, on October 16, 2015 which was held at Harvard Faculty Club. Other notable delegates include David Sanger, the Chief Washington correspondent of the New York Times; Bill Hayton, author of “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia” (Yale University Press, 2014); and Professor Sean P. Henseler, Director of Operations, Operational Level Programs, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.
Watch her viewpoint here: