China could do long-term damage to its relations and influence in Southeast Asia, observers say.
They said recent developments in the resource-rich waterway served as a âwarningâ to regional governments, which would increasingly gravitate towards the United States and its Western allies.
Beijing last week released a new âstandard mapâ with its unilateral claims to most of the South China Sea â a move that drew a strong reaction from the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei.
Malaysiaâs foreign ministry said it âdoes not recogniseâ Chinaâs expansive claims, while Manila called it the âlatest attempt to legitimise Chinaâs purported sovereignty and jurisdictionâ over the Philippinesâ maritime areas.
Yohanes Sulaiman, an associate professor of international relations at the Jenderal Achmad Yani University in Indonesia, said Beijing had much to lose from its assertion in the longer term, and that as countries in the region grew stronger economically and militarily they would âremember this humiliationâ.
âChina basically wonât be able to buy these countriesâ hearts and minds. And in the case of a conflict between China and the US, they will be far more likely to side with the US,â Sulaiman said.
âBy doing this, China is damaging its long-term influence ⦠hurting its own interests and this will badly backfire for China in the future.â
Renato Cruz De Castro, a professor of international studies at De La Salle University, said the string of government statements issued over Chinaâs new map indicated a âvery strong pushbackâ in the region.
He noted that Malaysia â which has a policy of âquiet diplomacyâ â was the first of the Southeast Asian maritime nations to speak out.
âMalaysiaâs reaction is, in a way, a litmus test of how far Asean countries could tolerate Chinaâs behaviour in the South China Sea,â he said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
