South China Sea

South China Sea

Conflict in the South China Sea and Foreign Policy

Introduction

The South China Sea is a locus of competing territorial claims, and China its most vocal claimant. Beijing's interest has intensified disputes with other countries in the region in recent years, especially since China has increased its naval presence. Despite rising international pressure, including an unfavorable ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, China staunchly defends its policies in the region. Preventing tensions from boiling over is a matter of careful diplomacy.[1]

South China Sea

Note: there is more information on the Asian/Chinese legal Encyclopedia. Notion of of South China Sea: The South China Sea is a part of the Pacific Ocean that occupies the area between mainland Asia and the Philippines, bounded in the north by the Taiwan Strait and in the south by Indonesia. Although it is home to numerous territorial disputes, the most well-known is between the PRC and Taiwan, both of which claim almost the entire sea as their own.[1]

South China Sea in 2013 (Continuation)

United States views on international law [1] in relation to South China Sea: The EEZ is a unique maritime zone forged from compromises made by States during the Third Law of the Sea Conference in the 1970s, compromises between those coastal States that wished to extend their full sovereignty out to 200 nautical miles and those States that, conversely, wished to confine all coastal State authority to the territorial sea. The resulting maritime zone—the EEZ—is a combination of high seas law and territorial sea law that has created a unique maritime space, the rules for which are set out in the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention.

Some Aspects of South China Sea

And the EEZ is an innovation in the law of the sea that can only be characterized as a success in light of the acceptance of this regime by nearly all States. Indeed, today the EEZ— extending up to 200 nautical miles from the shores of coastal States—represents more than one third of the world's ocean space, ocean space which is vitally important for trade, commerce and other uses of the sea.

Developments

Second, the legal regime of the EEZ reflects a balance of interests. On the one hand, coastal States have exclusive sovereign rights over resource-related activities—such as fishing and hydrocarbon exploitation. On the other hand, the extent of a coastal State's sovereign rights and jurisdiction is limited in the EEZ; it is not a zone of sovereignty. Important high seas freedoms are retained for the international community within the EEZ, and indeed much of the law of the high seas applies in this zone.

Details

This includes of course the freedoms of navigation and overflight and of the laying of submarine cables and pipelines. As reflected in Article 58 of the Convention, other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms are likewise preserved for all States in the EEZ. Of course, dating back to the era long predating the EEZ, the United States has always considered a traditional and lawful use of the seas to include military activities.

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Third, the United States believes that we need to work collectively to maintain and strengthen this rules-based system that fairly balances the interests of States and is reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention. We must avoid what one eminent scholar has called the “territorial temptation”—that is, the tendency of States to territorialize the EEZ, to turn the EEZ into a security zone or to attempt to impose requirements on foreign vessels or entities that might be appropriate if the EEZ were the territorial sea.

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We say this not to diminish the importance of coastal State security; that interest cannot be doubted. Indeed because of geography, the United States has the largest EEZ of any country. While mindful of these coastal State interests, we are at the same time aware that the EEZ is not a zone in which the coastal State may simply restrict the access of others according to its wishes. Any short-term advantages gained by trying to expand coastal State authority in the EEZ are more than offset, we believe, by the long-term risks posed to global mobility, trade, and access to the world's seas.

Resources

See Also

  • Foreign Policy
  • China

Resources

Notes

  1. South China Sea in the Digest of United States Practice in International Law

Resources

Notes and References

  1. Description/definition of South China Sea provided by the Foreign Policy Association

See Also

  • Foreign Policy
  • China

Resources

Notes and References

1. Source: the Foreign Policy Association.

See Also


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