Although China’s strong presence and second-largest military power, it still struggles to preserve its influence among its surrounding countries. Given the recent disappearance of the Malaysian jet, Beijing is requesting an accurate update on any information obtained and it is pressured to find the 154 Chinese passengers of the 227 missing passengers. However, Malaysia is not being very responsive to China’s requests, exposing China’s little influence over the other countries in the eastern hemisphere. During the attempt of increasing pressure to find the missing passengers, China appealed to the media and exposed Malaysia’s inefficient search methods. Reaching out to the public, however, has backlashed against its own country by adding pressure to China’s officials to find the jet.
This is yet another example of the lack of supremacy that a country with one of the largest military powers and economic presence can exhibit. I wonder if China will be able or willing to implement more radical measures to increase the pressure on Malaysia and what the impact on trading would be. China is the biggest trading partner in Asia and challenging China’s supremacy might affect the economies of most of the countries that depend on China.
Interesting take on the political dynamics of the international search operation currently taking place. The US, including the FBI, has provided extensive assistance to the Malaysian government. However, now that the search has expanded dramatically in size and is covering 25 countries, it remains to be seen how many of these countries and how much they will be willing to assist.
In fact, on interesting consideration is whether China is in fact not releasing the full extent of their knowledge of the plane’s disappearance due to concerns over revealing the extent and capabilities of their surveillance methods in the South China Sea and throughout the Near East. Could China in fact hold much more detailed data (satellite, radar, GPS, etc.) that it is declining to share, while pressuring Malaysia to release more?
Asher, I like bringing the secrecy dynamic into the discussion. I wonder though if China would be willing to evoke the wrath of the international community to conceal the presence of surveillance equipment.
It is hard for a country to give information that they do not have. Not that Malaysia doesn’t have any information, but this is a touchy subject that the government is no doubt struggling with to find information, and having China breathing down your back to get information isn’t helpful. I think that when Malaysia does get information, they will let everyone know, including the Chinese government.
Most of the passengers were Chinese, so is the government to remain silent? That far afield (er, over distant seas) neither they nor anyone else appears to have information to share. There are no islands in the area to host foreign navies with their attendant radar capabilities.
According to CNN today:
The Prime Minister’s statement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it “deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived.”
(http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/24/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/)
Now it has been confirmed that no one survived from the accident.
This is not really a problem of tension (even if it is, we have to be concerned about the lives of these missing passengers). Everyone is trying his or her best to save/find these people, but unfortunately, they failed.