Military Multipolarity in the South China Sea

... ASEAN. Beijing and Tokyo are striving to identify new partners and to consolidate their positions. Japan is inclined to support Southeast Asian countries in territorial disputes in the South China Sea. However, ASEAN countries are not ready to get involved in a confrontation, let alone to go against their specific ... ... the technical aspects of the issue, ASEAN countries have no warships able to counter the strength of China’s ocean-going fleet even given the latter’s currently imperfect condition. Frigate-class warships that Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and ...