Trouble Afloat? Sino-American Relations and the South China Sea

https://soundcloud.com/foreign-accent/trouble-afloat

There is an abject fear of something foreign. Halfway across the world in the South China Sea, we see the “evil, red” nation build islands and take over international waters mile by mile. What does China want? Is it right for us to be afraid?

International maritime law states that a country can only claim the 12 miles of seaboard that extend out of an island or coast, but China wants the entire sea, not just a few claimed islands and their coastlines. Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and others all claim islands in this resource rich, heavily trafficked area. China claims the entire region. Chinese maps now have a very visible red border around the south china sea, called the 9 dash line.

The threat of conflict between China and regional powers is very present, but only in the worst case scenario. [audio clip] says Professor of Strategy at the Naval War College, James Holmes.

I spoke to a US Naval Attaché who asked not to be named. His department in Beijing does not fear escalation into global war from this regional flashpoint. The intermediaries between China and the United States, such as this attache, understand that China only wishes to create a buffer zone in order to protect its own interests and people. The Chinese also wish to prevent a conflict that could bring them back to the Century of Humiliation. Why, then, the thinking goes, would the Chinese go to war with the rest of the world just for a defensive buffer?

In the short term, the conflict in the area will not produce a global war. The United Nations has already ruled unanimously against China’s claim to the entire sea in July of Twenty Sixteen. If China wishes to push against these rulings, it has international law and the sanctions of the UN to contend with.

The best case scenario for the world is to allow regional powers to dispute over little islands, but the United Nations should keep the disputes to only these islands. The current laws in place prevent a country from claiming all the sea that it wants, because they can then impose tolls on water that should be free for all peoples of all nations to use.

From Foreign Accent in Beijing, this is Alek Sas signing off.