China Vs Philippines and Vietnam

China vs Philippines and Vietnam
Tensions between China and both the Philippines and Vietnam have recently cooled, even
as China increased its military activity in the South China Sea by conducting a series of
naval maneuvers and exercises in March and April 2018. Meanwhile, China continues to
construct military and industrial outposts on artificial islands it has built in disputed waters.
The United States has also stepped up its military activity and naval presence in the region
in recent years, including freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in January and
March 2018. In a speech during his November 2017 visit to Southeast Asia, President
Donald J. Trump emphasized the importance of such operations, and of ensuring free and
open access to the South China Sea. Since May 2017, the United States has conducted six
FONOPs in the region.
Background
China’s sweeping claims of sovereignty over the sea—and the sea’s estimated 11 billion
barrels of untapped oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—have antagonized
competing claimants Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
As early as the 1970s, countries began to claim islands and various zones in the South
China Sea, such as the Spratly Islands, which possess rich natural resources and fishing
areas.
China maintains [PDF] that, under international law, foreign militaries are not able to
conduct intelligence-gathering activities, such as reconnaissance flights, in its exclusive
economic zone (EEZ). According to the United States, claimant countries, under UN
Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), should have freedom of navigation through
EEZs in the sea and are not required to notify claimants of military activities. In July 2016,
the Permanent Court of
Arbitration at The Hague issued its ruling on a claim brought against China by the
Philippines under UNCLOS, ruling in favor of the Philippines on almost every count.
While China is a signatory to the treaty, which established the tribunal, it refuses to accept
the court’s authority.
In recent years, satellite imagery has shown China’s increased efforts to reclaim land in the
South China Sea by physically increasing the size of islands or creating new islands
altogether. In addition to piling sand onto existing reefs, China has constructed ports,
military installations, and airstrips—particularly in the Paracel and Spratly Islands, where it
has twenty and seven outposts, respectively. China has militarized Woody Island by
deploying fighter jets, cruise missiles, and a radar system.
To protect its political, security, and economic interests in the region, the United States has
challenged China’s assertive territorial claims and land reclamation efforts by conducting
FONOPs and bolstering support for Southeast Asian partners. Also, in response to China’s
assertive presence in the disputed territory, Japan has sold military ships and equipment to
the Philippines and Vietnam in order to improve their maritime security capacity and to
deter Chinese aggression.
Concerns
The United States, which maintains important interests in ensuring freedom of navigation
and securing sea lines of communication (SLOCs), has expressed support for an agreement
on a binding code of conduct and other confidence-building measures. China’s claims
threaten SLOCs, which are important maritime passages that facilitate trade and the
movement of naval forces.
The United States has a role in preventing military escalation resulting from the territorial
dispute. Washington’s defense treaty with Manila could draw the United States into a
potential China-Philippines conflict over the substantial natural gas deposits or lucrative
fishing grounds in disputed territory. The failure of Chinese and Southeast Asian leaders to
resolve the disputes by diplomatic means could also undermine international laws
governing maritime disputes and encourage destabilizing arms buildups.
SOUTH CHINA SEA

OVERVIEW
The South China Sea is a critical commercial gateway for a significant portion of the
world’s merchant shipping, and hence is an important economic and strategic sub-region of
the Indo-Pacific. It is also the site of several complex territorial disputes that have been the
cause of conflict and tension within the region and throughout the Indo-Pacific.
GEOGRAPHY
Geographically, the South China Sea plays a significant role in the geopolitics of the Indo-
Pacific. The South China Sea is bordered by Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Their recent
economic growth has contributed to a large portion of the world’s commercial merchant
shipping passing through these waters. Japan and South Korea rely heavily on the South
China Sea for their supply of fuels and raw materials and as an export route, although the
availability of diversionary sea lanes bypassing the South China Sea provides non-littoral
states with some flexibility in this regard. The South China Sea also contains rich, though
unregulated and over-exploited fishing grounds and is reported to hold significant reserves
of undiscovered oil and gas, which is an aggravating factor in maritime and territorial
disputes. The major island and reef formations in the South China Sea are the Spratly
Islands, Paracel Islands, Pratas, the Natuna Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
TERRITORIAL DISPUTES
Competing claims of territorial sovereignty over islands and smaller features in the South
China Sea have been a longstanding source of tension and distrust in the region. The United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which was concluded in 1982 and
came into force in 1994, established a legal framework intended to balance the economic
and security interests of coastal states with those of seafaring nations. UNCLOS enshrines
the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a 200 nautical mile area that extends sole exploitation
rights to coastal nations over marine resources. However, the EEZ was never intended to
serve as a security zone, and UNCLOS also guarantees wide-ranging passage rights for
naval vessels and military aircraft.

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SOUTH CHINA SEA

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