IMPACT ON DEFENSE:Seth Cropsey said Beijing’s program makes it harder for the US to honor its obligations to Taipei, Tokyo, Manila and Seoul

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 09, 2015
By: William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

A US naval expert says that Beijing’s development of islands in the South China Sea will “greatly complicate” Washington’s ability to defend Taiwan.

“The little specks that China is creating in the South China Sea are political stepping stones to strategic dominance,” said Seth Cropsey, director of the Center for American Seapower at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.

A former deputy undersecretary of the US Navy, Cropsey said that China’s deliberately hostile actions in the West Pacific’s international waters are strategic.     [FULL  STORY]