That American effort appears to have been rebuffed by a more nationally assertive China convinced of its own success amid American decline.
China’s new-found assertiveness has not been confined to words.
In March 2009 an American surveillance ship was harassed within China’s EEZ of Hainan Island.
The US claimed that according to international law the ship was in international waters, but the Chinese claimed that they had certain entitlements within the EEZ waters.
This recalled a similar claim over the airspace of the EEZ in the 2001 EP-3 incident.
The Chinese navy has carried out vigorous patrolling in the Sea of Japan, where Japanese ship were ‘buzzed’, and in the South China Sea.
At the time of writing [July 2010] the countries of Northeast and Southeast Asia, with American participation and leadership, are confronting a China which is more assertive in pushing its maritime claims in the Yellow, Japan and South China Seas.