A recent joint publication by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Australia’s Strategic Forum. The report written by Ross Babbage, former senior Australian Defense Department official, concluded that the Obama government failed to “counter China’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea” and that during his second term, “Beijing militarized and established effective control over” this important strategic waterway.
Consequently, as implied by its title, “Countering China’s Adventurism in the South China Sea: Strategy Options for the Trump Administration,” the report urged America’s Trump and its close regional allies, notably Japan and Australia, to find ways and work together to “thwart Beijing’s expansionism in the South China Sea and deter further Chinese adventurism.”