Brent Sadler

Oh, thank you for having me on your show again.

Yes, I mean, despite all of the attention that sucks up all the attention in the Persian Gulf or even in the Caribbean against Venezuela and the drug narco cartels out there, there has been a steady and non-relenting pressure campaign by the Chinese Communist Party on its neighbors in the South China Sea.

And again, a lot of people not surprised about Taiwan.

But the real action is what's happening around Scarborough Shoal, a Philippine feature.

It's not really an island.

It's about 130 miles away from Luzon, the main island in the north of the Philippines.

And effectively, the Chinese have taken it over.

And they have been setting up to build a land reclamation and another man-made base like they did back with a lot of shock in 2013 through 15, a little further to the south.

But Scarborough Shoal is where it's at right now.

limited and very modest to say the least.

And that was very counterproductive because the Chinese started signaling in 2013 that they were going to do land reclamation, but no one in DC, most importantly, no one in DC took serious notice or to push back either diplomatically or even, you know, through the embassy.

What,

And our partners in the region trying to take our cue from us realized this was the era of a rebalance to the Asia Pacific back in 2012, the big defense strategic guidance that came out on that.

Our partners in the region were still seeing China as a partner, not as a threat.

And so it was a very muddled diplomatic messaging, and it was very weak response.

So the Chinese accelerated.

They built up bases there.

Even though they promised in the Rose Garden between Xi Jinping and President Obama that he wasn't gonna do that, we know the Chinese reneged on that and they built very rapidly bases in places like Fiery Cross that is a massive airfield, missiles, radars, listening equipment, et cetera, to allow the Chinese to maintain a naval presence that bullies all their neighbors as they try to exercise what they think is their right to possess, not just simply access, but possess.

the seafloor resources, the fish, and the water itself in the South China Sea writ large.

So the Chinese behavior has changed a little bit in the last year because they're getting much more forceful pushback