O dragão, o samurai e o mar do Sul da China

Abstract

The South China Sea is a maritime area of almost timeless importance. From the earliest times the Age of Navigations (about XV century), known as the gateway to Asia, its waters forged the birth of important civilizations and were the guiding thread of the process of social and political formation in Asia. It witnessed and led China's technological and political heyday, governed by the Ming Dynasty between 1368 and 1644. It was the gateway of the major Western powers that eventually subjugated almost all of Asia during the nineteenth century, while in this same century saw the blossoming of Japan as a great power from the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912). Much more than natural resources, the South China Sea is the way by which "everything and everyone goes". As a matter of "survival", its control and access were and are central elements in the formulation of external policies and security of political units of the past and the present. Today, in the 21st century, once again this maritime space is the scene of tensions and disputes between states that seek survival in a world increasingly dependent on international trade, where a third of this trade passes through the South China Sea. In this regard, the People's Republic of China and Japan, the second and third largest economies respectively, have been escalating a series of tensions over the need to ensure access to the resources present in this sea and the safety of trade routes that fuel their economies. To this end, they have developed specific naval strategies to meet these policy objectives.