As if things could not get any worse in the South China Sea, China's placement and testing of anti-ship missiles in the South China Sea all but confirms Asia's worst fears: America's goal to ensure that China's rise is peaceful and that Beijing would take its place among nations of the Asia-Pacific and larger Indo-Pacific as a "responsible stakeholder" is dead and buried.

And to make matters worse: Beijing does not seem to care about the tension it's creating throughout the region with every runway or missile it places on its fake islands. "China's deployment of national defense facilities on its own territory is reasonable and justified,"explained Chinese spokesman Hong Lei on Wednesday. He remarked, "It has nothing to do with the so-called militarization." Unfortunately, nothing says militarization like advanced missiles that are capable of sinking naval warships.