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Why China's Coast Guard Spent 258 Days in Waters Claimed by Malaysia

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Chinese coast guard vessels spent 70% of the past year
   patrolling in a tract of the South China Sea claimed by Malaysia, an
   American think tank says. Malaysia did little to push back.

   The coast guard presence, especially long-term for a Chinese mission in
   the widely disputed South China Sea, followed by Malaysia's muted
   response gives China an ever-stronger upper hand over the Southeast
   Asian country and more clout in a broader six-way maritime dispute that
   has grabbed attention as far away as Washington. China already has a
   military and technological edge in the dispute.

   In Malaysia, "they do monitor, but I don't think they do the shooing
   them away kind of thing, because China is simply too powerful for doing
   so," said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of
   International Affairs.

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