We are on a three day passage from Singapore to Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Like the Gibraltar, Hormuz and Malacca straits, the South China Sea is a strategic waterway. Roughly a third of the world's shipping passes through here. The warship below - as mysterious as others we've seen - is part of a maritime 'great game'.
Is the ship American or Chinese? Perhaps Taiwanese, Japanese or Korean. Six nations - China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan - lay claim to parts of the sea. The biggest claim by far is China's. There've been tense encounters as vessels of competing nations 'play chicken' in dangerous manoeuvres.
The Liquid Natural Gas ship, tanker and fishing boat below suggest why. The South China Sea has rich fishing grounds and may contain major oil and gas fields.
Critically important is 'freedom of the seas', the right of ships, such as Amber, to pass unmolested. China, in a crisis, could attempt to block this route. Washington says, despite defence cutbacks, the U.S. will maintain a strong presence in the Far East.
19th Century American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:
“The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it … 'Beware of me,' it says, 'but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.'"
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Better to look at seabirds. Gulls may be a pain in Toronto, but their East Asian counterparts are marvellous. They escort us all day, skirting waves, hovering and then swooping to nab fish fleeing Amber. These are working birds, not Lake Ontario panhandlers.
Evening in the South China Sea.
