Karishma Vaswani, Columnist

The South China Sea Is the World’s Next Flashpoint

Beijing will push back against deepening ties between the US, Japan and the Philippines. Washington should respond by increasing its presence in these troubled waters.

April 9, 2024 at 8:00 PM UTC

By Karishma Vaswani

Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia politics with a special focus on China. Previously, she was the BBC's lead Asia presenter and worked for the BBC across Asia and South Asia for two decades.

Danger zone.
Photographer: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

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Where could the US and China find themselves in a direct confrontation? Taiwan is the obvious answer: President Xi Jinping has said the island will eventually be unified with the mainland, either through peaceful means or by force. In fact, there was so much concern about the possibility of a conflict that The Economist called Taiwan “the most dangerous place on earth” in 2021. For now, though, military experts agree that an invasion is not imminent as Beijing still needs to boost its military capabilities. This is a fight Xi will not want to lose.

Instead, the world’s most dangerous place moniker belongs to the South China Sea.