South China Sea
China claims most of the South China Sea as either territorial water or Exclusive Economic Zone. China's claims cannot be reconciled with the claims of other states in the South China Sea area. The other states have conflicting claims that can be harmonized, the way there were compromises among the conflicting claims for the Gulf of Guinea in Africa. In the South China Sea, each of the littoral states claims areas that are immediately contiguous to their territorial seas, and it would be possible to "split the difference" on competing claims. But China claims the entirety of the South China Sea, so there is no possibility of compromise with China's position, since it is all or nothing.
On June 27, 2011 the U.S. Senate unanimously approved resolution S.Res.217, deploring the use of force by China in the South China Sea and calling for a peaceful, multilateral resolution to maritime territorial disputes in Southeast Asia. The resolution passed by the Senate reaffirms the strong support of the United States for the peaceful resolution of maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea, pledges continued efforts to facilitate a multilateral, peaceful process to resolve these disputes, and supports the continuation of operations by the United States Armed Forces in support of freedom of navigation rights in international waters and air space in the South China Sea.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai warned the United States on June 23, 2011 to stay out of the disputes in the South China Sea. "Regarding the role of the United States in this, the United States is not a claimant state to the dispute... So it is better for the United States to leave the dispute to be sorted out between the claimant states. ... I believe the individual countries are actually playing with fire, and I hope the fire will not be drawn to the United States.... Some American friends may want the United States to help matters. We appreciate that gesture, but more often than not, such gestures will only make things more complicated.... if the United States does want to play a role, it may counsel restraint to those countries who’ve been frequently taking provocative action, and to ask them to be more responsible in their behavior.... To be honest with you, the Chinese public is following very closely whether the United States will adopt a just and objective position on matters like these."
Officials in the Philippines said 23 June 2011 that the United States was obligated by a 1951 treaty to help defend Philippine interests if ships came under attack in the South China Sea. The United States is neutral on the validity of the competing islands claims, and the United States never claimed the Spratlys were part of the Philippines while it was the colonial power. But the US is adamant on freedom of navigation, including through EEZs. The main shipping lanes between the East Asia and the Middle East and Europe lies in this area. Hence, the United States would always line up against China’s claims to the entire South China Sea and also to China’s creatively restrictive interpretations of freedom of navigation what it effectively regards as internal territorial waters.
By mid-June 2011 tensions between China and Vietnam were rising over their disputed claims in the South China Sea. On 26 May 2011, a Chinese patrol boat cut the cable of a Vietnamese surveying vessel that was conducting seismic research within Vietnam's waters. Chinese ships cut the cables of a Vietnamese sonar exploration vessel operating 120 nautical miles off the Vietnam coast approximately due east of Nha Trang. No claim to the area where the Vietnamese ship was drilling could be made on the basis of sovereignty of all or any of the scattered groups of islets, rocks and reefs known as the Spratlys. Vietnam announced that its navy would hold live-fire exercises in the South China Sea on Monday for six hours on 13 June 2011. The Vietnamese military exercises were held around Hon Ong island about 40 kilometers off Quang Nam province in central Vietnam, far away from the disputed waters.
China demanded that Vietnam stop all business activities on the contested Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea and allow Chinese fishermen to work there. "Vietnam is unlawfully exploring oil and gas in the Wan'an Bank ... of the Spratly archipelago and harassed a Chinese fishing boat," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. Hong said a Chinese boat, involved "in doing normal business," was harassed by a Vietnamese boat and the Chinese fishing boat's net got mixed up with the Vietnamese boat's cable.
An editorial in the Global Times, a newspaper published by China's ruling Communist Party, accused Hanoi of using the "lowest form of nationalism to create new enmity between the people of the two countries.... Hanoi seems to be looking to dissipate domestic pressure and buck up morale at home, while at the same time further drawing in the concern of international society over the South China Sea dispute... If Vietnam insists on making trouble, thinking that the more trouble it makes, the more benefits it gains, then we truly wish to remind those in Vietnam who determine policy to please read your history... "
Deng Xiaoping had said "since we can't solve the South China Sea issue, we can leave it to the next generation which will be smarter." It is impossible to resolve the disputes over the South China Sea to the mutual benefit of all. Hypothetically, the claims of other littoral states could be reconciled by sectoral extensions of the Exclusive Economic Zones [as was done in the Gulf of Guinea]. China's claims cannot be so reconciled, since China claims vritually the entire South China Sea, which it views as internal waters.
In July 1977, when Deng Xiaoping emerged as China's leader following the death of Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese foreign minister, Huang Hua, confirmed that China's claim to the South China Sea was "non-negotiable" in the strongest terms. At the same time he commented: "The territory of China reaches as far south as the James Shoals, near Malaysia's Borneo territory... I remember that while I was still a schoolboy, I read about those islands in the geography books. At that time, I never heard anyone say those islands were not China's... The Vietnamese claim that the islands belong to them. Let them talk that way. They have repeatedly asked us to negotiate with them on the issue; we have always declined to do so... As to the ownership of the islands, there are historical documents that can be verified. There is no need for negotiations since they originally belonged to China.... In this respect Taiwan's attitude is all right. At least they have some patriotism and would not sell out the islands..."
Developments in the South China Sea issue in 2010 saw the United States moving away from its previous low-profile approach. In March 2010 Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai told visiting Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and the US National Security Council's Jeffrey Bader that China viewed the South China Sea as part of China's "core interests", on a par with Taiwan and Tibet. Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said at a press conference on Friday 30 July 2010 that China had "indisputable sovereignty" over islands in the South China Sea and the surrounding waters. He said that China would respect the liberty of ships and aircraft from "relevant countries" traversing the South China Sea in accordance with international laws. Geng said that China would push for the resolution of differences regarding the South China Sea with "relevant countries" through dialogue and negotiations and objected to having the issue internationalized. We are the against the internationalization of the South China Sea issue," Geng said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at the National Convention Center, Hanoi, Vietnam, on Friday July 23, 2010, stated that: "The United States, like every nation, has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia's maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea. We share these interests not only with ASEAN members or ASEAN Regional Forum participants, but with other maritime nations and the broader international community.
"The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants for resolving the various territorial disputes without coercion. We oppose the use or threat of force by any claimant. While the United States does not take sides on the competing territorial disputes over land features in the South China Sea, we believe claimants should pursue their territorial claims and the company and rights to maritime space in accordance with the UN convention on the law of the sea. Consistent with customary international law, legitimate claims to maritime space in the South China Sea should be derived solely from legitimate claims to land features.
"The U.S. supports the 2002 ASEAN-China declaration on the conduct of parties in the South China Sea. We encourage the parties to reach agreement on a full code of conduct. The U.S. is prepared to facilitate initiatives and confidence building measures consistent with the declaration. Because it is in the interest of all claimants and the broader international community for unimpeded commerce to proceed under lawful conditions."
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Sunday 25 July 2010 warned some countries not to "internationalize" the territorial dispute over the South China Sea that Beijing faces with its neighbors. "What will be the consequences if this issue is turned into an international or multilateral one? It will only make matters worse and the resolution more difficult.... International practices show that the best way to resolve such disputes is for countries concerned to have direct bilateral negotiations." The South China Sea is currently a peaceful area with navigational freedom, he said. "Trade has been growing rapidly in this region and China has become the number one trading partner of many countries in the region," Yang said. "In my bilateral discussions with both ASEAN colleagues and others, they all say that there is no threat to regional peace and stability."
Yang said the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed by China and ASEAN member countries in 2002 has played a good role in containing regional conflicts and will see high-level meetings when conditions are mature. In the declaration, the countries pledged to "exercise restraint, and not to make it an international issue or multilateral issue." Yang admitted that "there are territorial and maritime rights disputes" between China and some neighbors. But he emphasized that "those disputes shouldn't be viewed as ones between China and ASEAN as a whole just because the countries involved are ASEAN members."
Tensions flared in January 2010 after China announced plans to develop high-end tourism on several of the Paracel Islands, under a new plan to draw tourists to Hainan island. In 2009 China detained 25 Vietnamese fishermen found near the Paracels, who were only released after weeks of public demonstrations in Vietnam. On 20 January 1974, China forcefully seized the Paracel Islands from Vietnam. In an 11 January 2010 interview with Vietnamnet, Chinese Ambassador Sun Quoqiang, said "It is a big challenge for us to solve this dispute. If conditions are right and the two sides can solve the matter, our relationship will surely grow. If conditions are not right, we should put it aside.... There are three matters left by history in the China-Vietnam relations: Delimiting the land boundary, fixing the boundary in the Tonkin Gulf and the sea boundary. The two countries have tried to solve the first two issues. We currently have only to deal with the sea boundary."
On 08 March 2009 five Chinese vessels harassed an unarmed US Navy ship in the South China Sea. The American ship was conducting routine operations 75 miles south of Hainan Island. US officials protested to China about the naval incident in which American authorities said the Chinese sailors' conduct was "reckless" and "unprofessional." Chinese vessels maneuvered dangerously close to the USNS Impeccable, waving Chinese flags and ordering it to leave the area. The US ocean surveillance ship was unarmed and staffed by civilians conducting routine operations at the time. Some accounts said the Impeccable was towing sonar equipment to monitor Chinese submarine traffic. When the Chinese vessels moved dangerously close to the Impeccable, the U.S. military said the Americans sprayed water from the ship's fire hoses at one of the Chinese vessels. Crew members on the deck of the approaching patrol boat stripped to their underwear when they were sprayed with water, but US officials said the Chinese vessel did not change course, stopping only when it was about eight meters from the twin-hulled American vessel.
On March 24, 2001, one week before the EP-3 incident, a Chinese frigate came within 100 meters of the U.S. Navy's unarmed hydrographic survey vessel Bowditch collecting data in the Yellow Sea and forced it to stop operating in China's EEZ and depart. And in May 2001 T-AGS 62 Bowditch, another oceanographic survey vessel, had been at sea between Japan and China in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea doing oceanographic survey operations. Bowditch was performing hydrographic performance acousticdata tests. Such tests are performed using sonar-like equipment to determine the salinity, temperature, existence of currents and other water characteristics that affect the movementof sound under the surface. The collected data is useful in tracking submarines. The Chinese sent out a long-range maritime patrol plane to have a look. A Chinese surface vessel came out periodically during the course of its underway period to have a look as well. And the master of the Bowditch thought that it was their better course of action to depart the area at that point and he did so.
Again in September 2002, PLAN war ships directed the USNS Bowditch - an unarmed oceanographic research vessel manned by 25 civilians - to exit an area of international waters well outside Chinese territorial waters in the Yellow Sea. China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman at thetime refused to specify her country's specific basis for requiring Bowditch to depart, andcited only her state's "relevant rights" in the exclusive economic zone as a basis for the PLAN's actions.
In January 2003 China enacted a new decree extending its control over the 200-mile economic zone from its coast. "This is a Chinese domestic law that is inconsistent with international law and the law that we follow," said a defense official. "We have continued to maintain over the years that our military surveys are a high-seas freedom and are not subject to restrictions placed within any" exclusive economic zone."
In May 2003 China sought to intercept the Bowditch and force it away from its shores, claiming that the ship is violating China's "exclusive economic zone." China changed its tactics against the Bowditch, now using fishing boats to deliberately bump into the US vessel as a way of scaring it off. The Bowditch suffered some damage in one such intentional crash.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) coastal states have the right to establish sovereignty over adjacent waters out to a maximum of 12 nautical miles from the nation's coastline, including the coastline of offshore islands. These enclosed waters are known as the coastal state's territorial sea.
During the negotiations of the text of the 1982 UNCLOS military activities in the EEZ were a controversial issue. Some coastal States such as Bangladesh, Brazil, Cape Verde, Malaysia, Pakistan and Uruguay contended that other States cannot carry out military exercises or maneuvers in or over their EEZ without their consent. In June 1998, the PRC passed the "Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf Act." This Act created an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with 200 nautical mile limits from its coastal baseline, and claimed the right, inter alia, to broadly undefined powers to enforce laws in the EEZ, "including security laws and regulations." Based on the Act, the PRC does not recognize the airspace above its EEZ as "international airspace" and has interfered with and protested US reconnaissance flights over its EEZ. China takes the position that all maritime data collection activities, including military intelligence and hydrographic collection activities, fall within the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS] provisions for marine scientific research and therefore require coastal-state consent before they could be carried out in the two-hundred-nautical-mile EEZ.
The US has protested this sovereignty claim as a violation of international law numerous times since this law was passed. The US Government has long conducted a vigorous freedom of navigation program through which it has asserted its navigational rights in the face of what it has regarded as excessive claims by coastal states of jurisdiction over ocean space or international passages. When remonstrations and protestations are unavailing, elements of US military forces may sail into or fly over disputed regions for the purpose of demonstrating their right and determination to continue to do so.
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