Duel in the South China Sea?

There's a recent, oft-repeated myth in the Western media: China is opposed to and fears a "multi-lateral negotiation scheme", where the many competing nations in the South China Sea claims would negotiate in a group forum, instead of 1 on 1.

This Western media theory is that China is afraid of this forum because it would be negotiating against several smaller nations, who would naturally form some kind of "united front" against China. Consider the illogic of this latest "know nothing" campaign about nothing:

China has no power to forbid any nation from negotiating with others.  If Vietnam and Philippines want to form a "united front" against China, they can easily form an alliance and then negotiate with China.

It is thus obvious that Vietnam, Philippines, etc.cannot form a united front with each other.  

Given the record of ASEAN, why create yet another multi-lateral forum that resolves nothing?

Given the record of ASEAN, isn't it clear that the smaller nations are simply busy leveraging advantages for themselves -- which is really why they don't have much leverage against China. So why all the fuss about creating another multi-lateral forum?  

The reason is  evident from US's own statements:  the USA, began to simultaneously express support for Vietnam, Philippines, and Japan and to talk about its "pivot" to Asia, and about its own "rights" in the South China Sea because it wants to be in on the new "multi-lateral" negotiations with China in the South China Sea.

The reason for this kind of silly behavior is that US foreign policy has been run -- not by the State Department -- but by the Department of Defense for the past 15 years. That's why the US is currently attacking 6 countries and threatening 6 more.