South China Sea and Diaoyutai

  I am not a big advocate for fighting over unoccupied territories and uninhabited islands. However, sometimes certain issues become worth fighting for if only because its set up as a dare. In this case, it would be wise for China to build commercial assets in that part of the sea. I suspect the motivation is economic since China and the disputing countries are interested in the supposed oil reserves that may exist there. If those oil reserves exist, then China should go about extracting those reserves now by placing wells in that region.

 The ball then falls into the court of the disputing states as to whether they want to destroy those commercial wells or not. If they do not, its fine. If they escalate and attack those wells. Then the PLAN is then forced defend those wells. If the PLAN is attacked, then the PLAN is forced to further escalate by attacking their navies and their mainland.

 There is no need to plant forces onto their mainland, but simply a punitive blow against their nation's commercial and military assets. China has an incredible reach without having the need to put a single soldier on the ground. And that is something worth exploiting.