Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are 3 that make up a Pacific encirclement (probably the Philippines and perhaps Australia if you want to go that far). Typically that’s what people refer to when they say “surrounded” but obviously China isn’t completely surrounded. The reason these three are used in this context is because Chinese power projection assumes an outward eastern presence in the Pacific and not westward or northward.
Though ultimately this is of China’s own doing. They broke the “don’t interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake” rule with respect to the US and very rapidly turned the tide against themselves and now find that they are the ones making the mistake and seemingly unaware.
The mistake being supporting Putin, taking over Hong Kong prematurely, and pissing off the Philippines and Japan for no good reason. This has caused Pacific national to rally around America and has caused an American-skeptic Europe to unite strongly under NATO and turn China-skeptic. The whole “wolf-warrior” diplomacy thing was a massive fuck up.
> and pissing off the Philippines and Japan for no good reason
And Vietnam, and India, and every country that borders the South China Sea. It’s like a kid who goes school and buys everyone gifts to make friends but still treats everyone like crap.
Yea you are correct. I’m not sure what was going through my head with leaving them out. May have been thinking about the “strong American Allies” aspect.
Though ultimately this is of China’s own doing. They broke the “don’t interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake” rule with respect to the US and very rapidly turned the tide against themselves and now find that they are the ones making the mistake and seemingly unaware.
The mistake being supporting Putin, taking over Hong Kong prematurely, and pissing off the Philippines and Japan for no good reason. This has caused Pacific national to rally around America and has caused an American-skeptic Europe to unite strongly under NATO and turn China-skeptic. The whole “wolf-warrior” diplomacy thing was a massive fuck up.