Tensions between China and its neighbors have escalated in the South China Sea, and between China and Japan in the East China Sea.

One problem is the disputed waters of the East China Sea.

Pudong is bounded by the Huangpu River in the west and the East China Sea in the east.

Moreover, tensions with China over territorial claims in the East China Sea may adversely affect trade and foreign direct investment.

Hatoyama was naïve enough to declare publicly his intention of turning the East China Sea into a Chinese led Sea of Fraternity.

Calming the South China Sea

All of this is fueling nationalist sentiment in China and South Korea, and making even more dangerous the already volatile territorial disputes in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan.

Japan s main worry is that the US may not wish to risk a war with China over territorial disputes in the East China Sea.

China challenges Japanese control over more than seven square kilometers of islets called the Senkaku Islands in Japan, and the Diaoyu Islands in China in the East China Sea.

Avoiding Conflict in the South China Sea

It has certainly added tension to Japan s already fraught standoff with China over their competing claims to the Senkaku Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

Tensions are also running high in the East China Sea, where the two countries dispute sovereignty over a number of islands.

So, is a US China conflict in the South China Sea imminent?

From San Francisco to the South China Sea

South Korea s evolving foreign policy also may involve moving closer to China, as Korean nationalists join the Chinese in resisting Japan s rival claims to potential hydrocarbon deposits in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan.

To the east, it has no neighbor but the sea.

It is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the East Sea.

Japan is to the east of China.

TOKYO Japan has been in the news lately, owing to its dispute with China over six square kilometers of barren islets in the East China Sea that Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyu Islands.

In recent months, the Philippines and China have been embroiled over competing claims in the West Philippine Sea, also known as the South China Sea.

To the east is the Øresund, which splits Denmark and Sweden and joins the Baltic Sea to the North Sea.

East and South Asia are embroiled in an arms race, mainly at sea.

Last year, China formally staked a claim under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to more than 80 of the South China Sea.

After laying claim to 80 of the South China Sea, it has just established a so called air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, raising the odds of armed conflict with Japan and threatening the principle of freedom of navigation of the seas and skies.

From China s activities in the South China Sea to the Islamic State s continued advance in the Middle East, competition and conflict are threatening long standing regional orders.

The recent Sino Japanese diplomatic spat over disputed islands in the East China Sea followed, almost instantly, by a Sino Vietnamese row over similar atolls has put the spotlight on China and its regional policy.

With China and Japan currently sparring over islands in the East China Sea, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 has become a safe and popular choice for movie directors who continuously face strict censorship.

Its native habitat is East Asia, China, Japan, and Russia.

If left unchecked, China may use the South China Sea disputes to gain effective hegemony over weaker claimants.

With properly managed diplomacy, a US China conflict in the South China Sea can and should be avoided.

CANBERRA The South China Sea long regarded, together with the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula, as one of East Asia s three major flashpoints is making waves again.

Abe feels let down by Obama s decision not to take a firm stand on the ADIZ  the latest in a series of aggressive moves by China to upend the status quo in the East China Sea.

Astounded East Germans surged like a human sea to the crossing points to the West.

Making good on its claim to the South China Sea could be next.

Such thinking is passé. China already is East Asia's great power.

This partly explains the current tensions between China and Japan over their conflicting territorial claims to islands in the East China Sea, which occupy an area of only seven square kilometers, but are surrounded by rich hydrocarbon reserves.

A longer term concern is the rise of China an economic and demographic powerhouse whose expanding military capacity has enabled it to take an increasingly assertive stance in territorial disputes, including with Japan in the East China Sea.

For example, it will not consider resolving in an international forum its dispute with Japan in the East China Sea over the Diaoyu Islands (called the Senkaku Islands in Japan).

China s territorial ambitions are also fueling tensions in the South China Sea, where sea lanes that are vital to Japanese trade are located.

Many of them including China are to be found in East Asia.

In other words, a few rocks in the South China Sea have put China between a rock and a hard place.

Disputes in the South China Sea involving China and five of its neighbors, and in southern Asia, are equally resource driven.

In other words, a few rocks in the South China Sea have put China between a rock and a hard place.

And China not only proclaimed Clinton s intervention over the South China Sea islands an attack, but also held unscheduled naval maneuvers in the Yellow Sea in advance of the US South Korean exercise.

Indeed, the Black Sea region is the Euro Atlantic community's eastern frontier with the wider Middle East.