According to the media, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have all joined with the US and NATO in filing joint actions against China’s provocations in the South China Sea. According to the media, China is building air defense and sea defense that is offensive in nature and flexing it’s muscles which the US perceives to be an act that may lead to war. According to the media, the tensions are high and these five countries feel that their safety is at risk and have asked the US to secure their borders against China.

Ummmm  Really?  Somethings smells fishy…

According to the newly elected Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Phuc, they have no intention of threatening force and claim to have a great relationship with China in a joint resolution of peace…they plan to continue talks for a resolution regarding the South China Sea.

According to the newly elected Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines has great admiration and respect for China, and President Xi, and asks the US to kindly not interfere in peaceable negotiations.

And according to the Malaysian Foreign Minister, “Malaysia and China have agreed to settle South China Sea-related issues through the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and to speed up the completion of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC).

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the agreement was reached at his meeting with visiting China State Councillor Yang Jiechi after the latter called on him at Wisma Putra in Putrajaya today (May 10, 2016).”

So while the US and Europe are declaring the actions of China as hostile moves and directing military intervention for these poor Asian ally countries caught in the dispute, these Asian countries are actually telling the US and Europe to kindly – butt out. But we aren’t. Instead we are being quite provocative.

So why does the US really care?

Because in a report put out by the UN in 2007, the South China Sea is a goldmine – not for gold or oil, but for Aquaculture:

“Aquaculture in Southeast Asia is ideal in places like southern Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei where there are coastal intertidal swamps, mud flats of rapidly extending coasts, embayments as well as the ponds and reef flats, the report said.

Such topographical and geographical advantages are given tooth by the fact that Brunei is typhoon-free, typhoon being the most destructive enemy of sea farming.

The Programme has been carried out in cooperation with Director-General of Fisheries of Malaysia and the Sabah Fisheries Department by the Marine Colloids, Inc, of Rockland, Maine, in the United States. It covered and studied in detail Malaysia, Brunei, southern Philippines and southern Bali and southwestern Sulawesi of Indonesia.

Seaweeds are a multi-billion dollar industry because they are used as medicine, food, agars, colloids, gels and gums for industries; and lately as synthetic material for spaceships in outer galactic exploration.

The most important but highly expensive seaweed is carrageenan, which reaches US$10 ($15) per pound.”

Like the land-grabs in Africa, the South China Sea is about fish-grabs, aqua-grabs, who has the right to the perfect waters for sustainable farm fisheries. Like the African land-grabs – it is about FOOD supply. If China asserts its right, and the five Asian countries switch alliance, the US will lose a food source, and, by default, a profit source.

Over fishing has nearly collapsed the wild fish market. With a growing world population and hungry mouths to feed, the seas have a limited supply that is dwindling rapidly. The solution is aquaculture, or farm fisheries. But even farm fisheries require sustainable waters, and apparently the South China Sea offers this solution. But, territorial disputes over the waters plagued this solution. China decided to ignore the disputes and try to work with these regional countries. That left Europe and the US out of the mix.

Five of the ten top aquaculture producers are South China Sea countries. Vietnam and Thailand are major exporters of farmed products. Asia accounts for 90% of global aquaculture. Nearly all shrimp, salmon, scallops, tilapia, clams, mussels and oysters are farm raised. Since the 1980’s, New England Bay scallops are actually from China… Most of our shrimp is farmed in China.

90% of fish consumed in the US is imported which accounts for a trade deficit of over $10 billion annually. But even more bizarre is that upwards of 75% of wild fish caught in US waters is – exported. To Asia. Weirder still:  “Because foreign labor is so cheap, many Alaskan salmon are caught in American waters, frozen, defrosted in Asia, filleted and boned, refrozen and sent back to us.”

So while the media would have us believe that China is flexing muscle and all the neighboring Asian countries are shaking in their boots, that is not the Truth. It is a plague of convoluted lies that mask reality and feeds us a limp shrimp…