SAN FRANCISCO — It’s time for countries threatened by China’s belligerent claims of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea to push back with a maritime coalition that has “enforcement capabilities,” a strategic analyst urges in a recent article in the New York-based Journal of Political Risk.

With joint enforcement capabilities — backed by Japan, the US and Australia as security guarantors — this maritime coalition of the willing can demand that China “abandon its maritime claims and reclamation activities and vacate reclaimed areas under an agreed-upon deadline.”

China must be made to choose between losing “soft power” if it continues saber-rattling, or gaining respectability as a superpower willing to engage in the peaceful joint exploration of resources in the area.

Thus concludes a strategic analysis by Filipino American social scientist Dr. Priscilla Tacujan in the June 2 issue of Journal of Political Risk produced by Corr Analytics, a consulting firm. Tacujan is an independent consultant who has worked in Afghanistan and holds a Ph.D in political science from Claremont Graduate University.

“By now, it should be clear to everyone that China is not giving up its maritime claims in the South China Sea,” Tacujan writes in “What It Takes to Resolve the South China Sea Dispute.” Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines also claim parts of the disputed area.

“Despite pending international court decisions and worldwide condemnations, China has aggressively reclaimed about 2,000 acres of land in the South China Sea — proof of its intent to stay, defend, and protect 90 percent of the sea that it claims it owns,” her article further states.