A United Nations arbitration court will over the sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea, a territorial dispute between China and the Philippines with global implications.
In recent years, China has been asserting claims in the region and has built up atolls and islands to be large enough to stage military exercises. This region is of major economic and geopolitical significance, with its vital commercial shipping lanes, rich fisheries and deposits.
Even before any ruling, China has and that the Philippines should seek to settle the dispute through bilateral negotiations. The US, meanwhile, has been in the South China Sea in recent months.
These growing tensions focus attention on an emerging geopolitical hotspot, something I view through my perspective as a researcher of political geography and globalisation. What is the background to these tensions and what are their likely implications and consequences?
Reassertion of global status
China’s economic success is obvious. In the past 25 years, it has grown to become the second-largest economy in the world, lifting millions out of poverty in rates of economic growth .
But it is crucial for non-Chinese to remember that China’s leaders see international political standing, not only economic clout, as an . Heightened global stature not only makes up for a century when China was on the wrong end of asymmetrical relations with other powers, especially Japan, and subject to dismemberment and annexations, but it also reclaims China’s position as one of the world’s preeminent centres of power and influence.
The Philippines chose to challenge China’s claims to the Scarborough Shoal, the green dot west of Manila on this map, through the UN rather than bilateral talks.
China claims a wide swath of territory in the South China Sea. It is often shown on Chinese maps as and, indeed, .
Laws and zones
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), first introduced in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of The Sea, are areas where states can . They have a limit of 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastal baseline, the seaward edge of its territorial sea.
Where EEZs overlap, as is the case in some parts of the South China Sea, it is up to the neighbouring states in question to delineate the maritime border.
Matters are made more complex when small islands – rather than a coastline or continental edge – are used to define a nation’s EEZ and are claimed by more than one country. A country can establish territorial sea up to 12 nautical miles from a naturally formed island and from there can claim a 200-nautical-mile EEZ.
Part of China’s strategy in the waters of the South China Sea then is to lay claim over islands, natural and artificial, in order to establish sovereignty to claim the surrounding waters.
Many islands in dispute
China’s territorial claim overlaps with the EEZs of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. There are a number of ongoing disputes over the .
The Paracel Islands, for example, are claimed by both China and Vietnam. When China moved a to the region in 2013, it was seen as a direct threat by the Vietnamese and undermined China-Vietnam relations. The Chinese have built a on Woody Island, one of the largest of the Paracel Islands, and recently added a to Duncan Island.
The Scarborough Shoal, a 60-square-mile chain of rocks and reefs, is .
In 2012 China took effective control by reconstructing seven islands. Control over the islands in the shoal allows China to monitor US military activity.
The Philippines responded by taking the issue to the UN in 2013, rather than pursuing bilateral discussion. The Philippines, unlike other states in the region, has fewer economic ties with China and close military ties with the US. The UN ruling will be the result of this one-sided arbitration case.
The election of a new president may, however, herald a new change in Filipino-Chinese relations. Benigno S. Aquino III has the US would need to respond militarily if China develops the shoal to maintain credibility in the region. And incoming President Rodrigo Duterte has said he’s open to .
And then there are the , more than 740 reefs, islets, atolls and islands, to which six countries lay claim: China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
And all but Brunei have built or claimed outposts there. However, China’s , when it started to build on existing rock outcrops and reefs to create 2,900 acres of new land.
Vietnam and the Philippines have undertaken similar ventures, but China has outpaced every other country combined. Sand is pumped up from the sea floor and and even the live coral of submerged reefs that are then concreted over to become bases capable of providing docks for ships and runways for planes. have been built on Mischief Reef and Subi Reef. In other words, the Chinese have militarised the disputed islands.
Pivot to Asia
China’s claim to Scarborough Shoal in its dispute with the Philippines lacks any connection with current laws of the sea; I would interpret it as a claiming of world power status and importance.
The Chinese look around the region and see the projection of : US bases in South Korea, Japan, a nuclear submarine fleet, a military presence in Philippines and Australia and a fleet of super carriers able to project power and influence. The Chinese see the significant military and naval presence in the region as a threat to their regional power status.
The US is the only country capable of proving a credible counter force. The US response is sometimes referred to as the announced in 2011.
It includes an increase in US Navy assets in the Pacific, a planned deployment of 2,500 marines to Darwin, Australia, as well as a reassurance to regional allies to keep the South China Sea free for navigation and trade. The US Navy has undertaken maneuvers in the region to drive home two points: these are open waters and the US is still a credible force in the region.
An FA-18 jet fighter lands on the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, April 15, 2016. Source: AAP
In October 2015 a US warship passed within of a China artificial island. A US passed through the disputed Paracel Islands in January 2016.
Troubled waters
The UN ruling will likely create more problems than solutions. Interpreted by China as a US-inspired power move, it will increase rather than decrease geopolitical tensions.
Yet, conflict between . There are vast areas of .
A greater fear is that a local event can spin out of control. An overzealous Chinese lieutenant fires upon a US ship; a US destroyer rams a Chinese fishing boat. A US plane is accidentally shot down by a surface-to-air missile from a disputed island. At the local level the potential for conflict grows to dangerous levels. And often it is events at the local that can influence the global.
, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
