Put China in its place now

US President Barack Obama is expected to call on China to stop bullying its smaller neighbors when he addresses leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in a US-Asean summit that he is hosting in California next week. This will be the nth time that Obama will be calling out China over the same issue. In other words, the American president has been all talk and no action. No wonder a growing number of people say nasty things about him behind his back.

But there is a new development reported by Reuters that could provide Obama with just the right opportunity to back up his words with real action. According to Reuters, the United States and India have been holding talks that included the possibility of conducting joint naval patrols. If such joint patrols ever materialize, they could very well include patrols in the South China Sea, which China claims as its own despite competing claims by some of its smaller neighbors.

Nothing has gone beyond the exploratory talks, however. And a major sticking point in its realization is the fact that India, according to Reuters, has never carried out joint patrols with another country and that so far there has been no change in that country's policy of joining an international military effort only under the United Nations flag.

But the fact that both countries are talking about the possibility of joint naval patrols is something Obama can aggressively pursue if he truly wants to back up his rhetoric with real action. India, after all, is not exactly lovey-dovey with China, having once engaged that country in a brief shooting war over border issues that remain contentious to this day, as well as a passport war of sorts.

Perhaps Obama can even try to bring in Japan and Australia into the mix, both countries being close military allies with the US. The more countries joining any joint naval patrol will make it easier for these countries to deal with particular political and economic concerns that may arise from such a move than if they were to face the prospect of dealing with China's aggressions in the South China Sea individually.

And there is no overemphasizing the fact that sooner or later, all of these countries and more will have to deal with China's claim of sovereignty over the whole of the South China Sea, through which several billions of dollars worth of trade sail annually. Already, China has begun grabbing islands in the area that are claimed by others, developing and fortifying them. Where there is nothing to grab, China has built artificial islands and has started garrisoning them.

The actions of China are no laughing matter. It has already served notice that it will soon require those seeking air or maritime passage through the area to seek permission first. Unless the concerned countries takes this affront seriously now, they might wake up one day and realize that China truly meant what it said and that it had the clout to back up its demand.

If Obama and the US, as well as its allies and all those who have a political and economic stake in the South China Sea, truly want to put China in its proper place, now would be the time to do so.

Right now, China cannot match the military might of the US, much less if joined by its allies. But China knows this and has been beefing up its military aggressively.

What Obama and the US and its allies currently enjoy is but a slim luxury of time and a shaky non-parity in military might. That can all vanish and change in a moment nobody expects. True, US Navy ships sailed twice through the area, but they did so very gingerly, in an almost deferential manner that only served to clearly demonstrate it was intruding and did not wish to offend the boss. The stunt, it now turns out, was largely for face-saving p.r.