Why is President Obama pushing the TPP with every ounce of political muscle he possesses?

The other day, someone asked me if I thought his motives were "malicious". I said I didn't. But I do think I know what the basis for his determination to enact it is. In a word: CHINA.

It's about limiting China's influence in the region every bit as much as it's about anything else (actually the majority of the TPP isn't about trade or tariffs).

It's about keeping China's growing influence checked and in abeyance as long as possible. In the long run, that's hard to see happening. China has a swiftly growing economy and a swelling middle class. It's part of the region that we wish to hitch firmly to our wagon, so its influence is, in large part, a simple matter of geography.

China's ongoing and ramped up attempt to control and dominate the South China Sea is an example of what many see as a threat not just to nations in the region but to U.S. influence. I believe President Obama has said as much, though of course, in trying to sell the TPP to the American people, he is focusing on its presumed benefits to American workers and corporations.

China already has a trading pact with several nations in the region- ASEAN. It does not include such nations as Japan or Australia or New Zealand.

The U.S. and other nations want to diminish ASEAN via the TPP.

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Resources

The South China Sea is an extremely significant body of water in a geopolitical sense. It is the second most used sea lane in the world, while in terms of world annual merchant fleet tonnage, over 50% passes through the Strait of Malacca, the Sunda Strait, and the Lombok Strait. Over 1.6 million m³ (10 million barrels) of crude oil a day are shipped through the Strait of Malacca, where there are regular reports of piracy, but much less frequently than before the mid-20th century.

The region has proven oil reserves of around 1.2 km³ (7.7 billion barrels), with an estimate of 4.5 km³ (28 billion barrels) in total. Natural gas reserves are estimated to total around 7,500 km³ (266 trillion cubic feet). A 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration raised the total estimated oil reserves to 11 billion barrels. In 2014 China began to drill for oil in waters disputed with Vietnam.

According to studies made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippines, this body of water holds one third of the entire world's marine biodiversity, thereby making it a very important area for the ecosystem. However the fish stocks in the area are depleted, and countries are using fishing bans as a means of asserting their sovereignty claims.

Main article: Territorial disputes in the South China Sea


Several countries have made competing territorial claims over the South China Sea. Such disputes have been regarded as Asia's most potentially dangerous point of conflict. Both People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC, commonly known as Taiwan) claim almost the entire body as their own, demarcating their claims within what is known as the nine-dotted line, which claims overlap with virtually every other country in the region. Competing claims include:

Indonesia, China, and Taiwan over waters NE of the Natuna Islands

The Philippines, China, and Taiwan over Scarborough Shoal.

Vietnam, China, and Taiwan over waters west of the Spratly Islands. Some or all of the islands themselves are also disputed between

Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The Paracel Islands are disputed between the PRC/ROC and Vietnam.

Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam over areas in the Gulf of Thailand.

Singapore and Malaysia along the Strait of Johore and the Strait of Singapore.

China and Vietnam have both been vigorous in prosecuting their claims. China (various governments) and South Vietnam each controlled part of the Paracel Islands before 1974. A brief conflict in 1974 resulted in 18 soldiers being killed, and China has controlled the whole of Paracel since then. The Spratly Islands have been the site of a naval clash, in which over seventy Vietnamese sailors were killed just south of Chigua Reef in March 1988. Disputing claimants regularly report clashes between naval vessels.

ASEAN in general, and Malaysia in particular, has been keen to ensure that the territorial disputes within the South China Sea do not escalate into armed conflict. As such, Joint Development Authorities have been set up in areas of overlapping claims to jointly develop the area and dividing the profits equally without settling the issue of sovereignty over the area. This is true, particularly in the Gulf of Thailand. Generally, China has preferred to resolve competing claims bi-laterally, while some ASEAN countries prefer multi-lateral talks, believing that they are disadvantaged in bi-lateral negotiations with the much larger China and that because many countries claim the same territory only multilateral talks could effectively resolve the competing claims.

The overlapping claims over Pedra Branca or Pulau Batu Putih including neighboring Middle Rocks by both Singapore and Malaysia were settled in 2008 by the International Court of Justice, awarding Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore and Middle Rocks to Malaysia.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Sea#Islands_and_seamounts

The US Air Force just made a huge show in the South China Sea with 3 nuclear-capable bombers

On Wednesday, the US Air Force made history by flying all three operational bombers, the B-52, the B-1, and the B-2 over Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, before conducting drills in the South China Sea and Northeast Asia.

The unique opportunity to fly these three long range bombers together came when the advanced B-1s and B-2s arrived in the theater to relieve the B-52s that were stationed there as part of operation Continuous Bomber Presence.

Essentially, it is the goal of US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to constantly station nuclear-capable bombers in the Pacific in a visible effort to deter aggression in the region. But lately, the US has stepped up the presence, pulling out all three big bombers, while China has been acting increasingly aggressively towards their neighbors in the South China Sea.

China, for their part, has attempted to establish a "no sail zone," intruded into Japan's territorial waters, and flew bomber patrols of their own over the disputed islands and shoals since the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague ruled against their claims to the South China Sea. Now it would seem the US is answering.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/us-air-force-3-bombers-pacific-2016-8