Obama says South China Sea ruling 'binding'

Statement of fact. It is binding.

Well, they HAVE to listen NOW.

And so long as the US 7th fleet stays where it is, end of discussion.

Any change in pace in Chinese south sea construction?

Yea, every ruling is binding but who cares.

In historical terms, China is where the U.S. was back in the late 1800s with all of the swagger and nationalism that goes along with it. As far as they're concerned, the U.S. is an unwelcome visitor in what they consider to be their part of the world. This might be distasteful for many people to accept, but it's not really all that different from the way many Americans were in favor of the Monroe Doctrine back in the day and many continue to be, hence the Cuban Missile Crisis back in the 1960s. Just as the Russians were what Americans viewed as an unwelcome visitor too close to its shores, so too do the Chinese view the U.S. military presence as what they view more and more as their part of the world.

I don't usually agree on a lot of what Henry Kissinger has to say, but I do believe he has a point when he says that the Asian nations are going to have to establish a firm self-defense treaty alliance amongst themselve concerning military cooperation in order to counterbalance the growing military threat of China. Where the U.S. will fit in all of this long-term is not perfectly clear. However, the U.S. should not be relied upon to defend all of Asia by itself without some kind of Asian treaty agreement which is similar to NATO. The U.S. government found out the hard way that its military alone could not win the Vietnam War for S. Vietnam by itself without the support of the S. Vietnamese themselves.

The years ahead in Asia are going to be dicey and require some skillful diplomatic maneuvering to maintain peace and stability in Asia. We should expect China to push the envelope as far as it can, especially as it grows economically, militarily and if there's nobody to push back.

What was it that Napoleon was quoted as saying: "Let China sleep, for when it awakens it will move the world." Well, China's awake now, so the world had better be on its toes.