Late last month, Chinese fighter jets intruded into Taiwanese air space for the first time in 10 years while shadowing a US spy plane. At the time Taiwan scrambled its own fighters in response and, in recent days, Beijing and Washington have traded tit-for-tat accusations, as they tend to do.
The threat of a cataclysmic war over Taiwan has fortunately receded into the background - barring an act of idiocy - given strengthening trade ties and China's growing role in geopolitics.
It is a different era than when the Kuomintang fled the mainland at the end of the civil war. Now it is neither desirable nor possible for the United States to control every inch of international waters, containing a "Red menace" that belongs to history.
And so China is pursuing its own ambitious naval programme, and no country builds a blue-water navy except to support strategic goals. What Beijing intends to do with that power remains to be seen.
What is sure is that competing powers have to find new ways to resolve disputes, preferably based on compromise. One of the most pressing issue involves the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, long valued for fisheries and now known to be rich in offshore oil.
China, voracious for resources, has abrogated the 2002 code of conduct that it forged with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to manage the competing South China Sea claims of China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
In fact, China declared unilaterally last year that the whole South China Sea was an area of non-negotiable "core national interest". Responsible powers do not operate in this way. Some observers think China has moderated its behaviour in the region since; China and Asean signed a new South China Sea procedural accord just this month.
The obvious long-term solution to the Spratlys question is a negotiated split of resources. It is a lesson that applies elsewhere as well. Last week the United States called for such a bilateral settlement between Lebanon and Israel to govern exploitation of offshore gas and oil reserves. A similar deal could be worked out among circumpolar states avid for Arctic oil.
It is not just China that needs to adjust to a multipolar world. The United States, too, should realise that negotiated solutions are preferable in the long term. And, we hope, smaller nations like those in Asean can find their common interests to stand up to the big powers on the block.
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
SM Town Live is on Friday, April 6 at Autism Rocks Arena, Dubai. Tickets are Dh375 at www.platinumlist.net
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The specs
Engine: 8.0-litre, quad-turbo 16-cylinder
Transmission: 7-speed auto
0-100kmh 2.3 seconds
0-200kmh 5.5 seconds
0-300kmh 11.6 seconds
Power: 1500hp
Torque: 1600Nm
Price: Dh13,400,000
On sale: now
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
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'Joker'
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix
Rating: Five out of five stars
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Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Most wanted allegations
- Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
- Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
- Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
- John James Jones, 31: allegedly stabbed two people causing serious injuries.
- Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
- James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
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The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5