Chinese Expansionism : A case study on the Chinese expansionist initiative in the South China Sea during the last decade

Abstract: The Asian renaissance in the twentieth first century, constituted by astronomical economic growth combined with the ambitious and authoritarian leadership of Xi Jinping's reign, has led China in the direction of proactive international policies. The South China Sea is one of the major arenas where such policies are taking place. This paper seeks to explain the case of  the Chinese expansionist initiative in the South China Sea through a case study with the structure of a systematic textual analysis. The study will further adopt the international political theory of realism as an explanatory model, which is commonly referred to as the most suited international political theory in explaining expansionist state behavior. Further concepts within the theoretical lens consist of; balance of power, regional hegemony and elements of national power. This paper finds that China seeks to militarize the South China Sea as an act of power-balancing towards the military presence of the U.S. The end-goal of the Chinese initiative is to establish regional hegemony in the region, where China seeks to dominate the waters in competitions with ASEAN states through the means of their maritime militia. Towards the United States, the effort of regional hegemony is mostly in the phase of verbal prompts and to some extent threatening. The initiative in the waters further serves to extract national elements of power, such as oil, natural gas and fishery to secure maintenance and growth of the Chinese nation.