The New York Times comments: "At an ocean research center on Hainan Island off China's southern coast, officials routinely usher visitors into a darkened screening room to watch a lavishly produced People's Liberation Army video about China's ambitions to reassert itself as a great maritime power. As enormous, new naval vessels plow through high seas, a deep male voice intones: "China's oceanic and overseas interests are developing rapidly. Our land is vast, but we will not yield a single inch to foreigners." The 2015 video is one of many signs that China is seeking to emulate the United States' 19th-century policy of taking exclusive control of security in the Western Hemisphere by excluding foreign powers from the region. Without officially saying so, China hopes to impose a modern version of the Monroe Doctrine on its surrounding oceans... What China's leaders have said amounts to easily decipherable code language for their own version of this policy. On the one hand, they say Asia should be governed by Asians. On the other hand, they say that since time immemorial the South China Sea has belonged to and has been controlled by China. This means that "outside" powers should butt out, leaving China with its disproportionate size, wealth and might to reign supreme over its entire neighborhood."