CHINA’S STRING OF PEARLS :
SPEAKING SOFTLY AND CARRYING A BIG STICK

Andrew Kahn

DESCRIPTION: China’s String of Pearls naval defense stretches from the Persian Gulf eastward through the Straits of Malacca, and northward across the South China Sea. The purpose of this defense is to protect Chinese shipments of oil and gas and other vital materials being imported into the People’s Republic. The modernized and expanded PLAN (Chinese Navy) has secured access to ports along the entire “String of Pearls” route. In response, the Indian Navy has increased the number of its bases on the Indian Ocean and enlarged its fleet to meet the Chinese challenge. In addition, China has claimed it has a “core interest” in developing the rich oil and gas deposits beneath the South China Sea, as part of exercising control over the Parcel and Spratly Islands. Disputes involving sovereignty issues have taken place between Vietnam and China in the Gulf of Tonkin, and between China and the Philippines over control of the Spratlys. China has had conflict with Japan over fishing rights, and has continued to threaten Taiwanese independence with armed attacks across the Taiwan Strait. The nations of South Asia are looking to the United States’ Seventh Fleet as a counter-balance to Chinese hegemony. President Obama has assured them America will maintain its naval forces in the Western Pacific. To underscore this, the U.S. Navy has conducted joint military exercises with many nations in the South China Sea Region, including Vietnam. The U.S. has also established a Marine base in northwest Australia. Mr. Kahn will offer his view of what is likely to occur in the near term as South Asian nations continue to build up their armed forces, China continues to employ its String of Pearls strategy, and the United States sails its warships throughout the region.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Andrew Kahn has studied political and social science on the undergraduate level at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and on the graduate level at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Maryland, and at New York’s New School University. He has taught at St. Cloud University in Minnesota and Western Connecticut University. He was a James Madison Fellow in Constitutional Law at the University of Indiana, and a Commonwealth Fellow in American and European History at Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges in Pennsylvania. Mr. Kahn helped found AEGIS, the Association for Education in Global/International Studies, at Stanford University. Over the past several years, Mr. Kahn has taught a variety of global-issue courses and delivered lectures for the Lifelong Learning Society at Florida Atlantic University (FAU ) Boca.