Maintaining peace and tranquility in the South China Sea
- By Shen Dingli
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 2, 2015
Despite this, China has joined the Declaration on the Code of Conduct (DoC) on the South China Sea with all ASEAN members, committing to using peaceful means only to settle disputes. Lately Beijing has embarked on a process of preparing for negotiating the Code of Conduct (CoC) on the South China Sea, to eventually conclude a multilateral institutional legally bound framework of resolving disputes peacefully in the region. Clearly, China's handling of the disputes has shown its intent to maintain peace and tranquility collaboratively in South China Sea. It is notable that per the UN Charter, any countries have self-defense right to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity, with or without specific UN authorization. By working around DoC and CoC parameters on the South China Sea, China is willing to abide by higher standard so as to resolve international disputes through cooperation.
However, it is unlikely that China could expect Vietnam and other claimants in the region to yield on the disputed islands/islets that they have already occupied. Consequently China will be less able to manage South China Sea when its business vastly blossoms in the area. As with many other ocean-going countries, China's sea-based transportation heavily taps the South China Sea. Its fishery business also heavily depends on this region, as has been the case for over 10 centuries. Lately China is also advancing its offshore oil drilling capacity. All these would demand China to secure alternative physical base to protect its legitimate maritime interests there, either to maintain civil maritime order or to keep watching the regional development.
America shall gauge the strategic impact of China's buildup. It is anxious of China's rise and keeps watching all the time. In a similar vein, China needs to watch how the US is watching, and its South China Sea-based reclamation shall be helpful in this regard. Legalistically speaking, the US cannot stop China's buildup, but it would not honor the territorial space and water China may therefore increase. In the word of the US officials, "China cannot build sovereignty." However, China does acquire sovereign space and water as long as it has the sovereignty of an island, and international law does allow attaching additional structure connected with the island. The US may argue that China's reclamation doesn't add to its chance of an exclusive economic zone, but could not deprive it from acquiring territorial space and water.
To ease the US concern, China is taking a number of public stances. First of all, it pledges not to threaten the freedom of navigation in and flight over the South China Sea. Then, it commits to offering public goods of weather forecasting and maritime rescue etc. in the region with its reclaimed capacity. It welcomes the US and other countries, as well as international organizations, to make use of the facilities it will build, so as to advance cooperation on humanitarian aid and disaster relief. After all, there are many ways to dispel suspicion and build trust, rather than by sending a warship or spy plane into the contested space and water in the name of free navigation or innocent passage, either to invite a fiasco or test respective ability to deescalate at the last minute.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/shendingli.htm
This article was first published at Chinausfocus.com To see the original version please visit http://www.chinausfocus.com/peace-security/maintaining-peace-and-tranquility-in-the-south-china-sea/
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