Imagine the Chinese vessels come to the Gulf of Mexico to hold common military exercises with the Cuban ships. What would be the US reaction? That could happen if both communist states had enough money to provoke the military superpower. Imagine China would state that it is in Beijing's national interest to control the Gulf of Mexico and not to allow the United States of America to suppress small states like Cuba, Guatemala or Belize.

This is what happens, in reverse order of course, in the Yellow sea close to China. The US will simply not allow China to control its bordering seas. This is interesting; bearing in mind the US depends on China's will to hold its dollar reserves. On the other hand, China probably cannot sell those reserves because it would mean huge losses now. Anyway, in our case Cuba is South Korea, Guatemala is Vietnam and Belize is Philippines.

So, China will buy more arms and the tension will rise. History repeats itself and the empires fight sooner or later. Let us hope, the nuclear weapons stay out of this coming confrontation and there are no undiscovered undersea resources in the South China Sea. In the meantime, we must add the naval rivalry to the group of the Sino - US tensions, so far consisting of the exchange rate, Tibet, Taiwan's arms, chicken trade wars and internet freedom.

Milan Sebo

PHOTO: ISIFA