South China Sea Disputes: Conflict in a Global Crossroads Essay examples

Lee, Wei Chin. “Arms Twisting: U.S.-Taiwan Arms Transfers in the First Decade of the Twenty-

(Marshall np.) Multiple countries are in contest over the Sea such as, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. With so many countries stating their claims, China has come out with statements referring to the creation of a “nine-dash line” back in the late 1940’s. They have stated this line as a historical claim that gives China the right over the sea as well as the islands and resources within its area. (Marshall np.) Their actions are said to be bypassing international laws. After citing historical claims, they further stated that, “‘The Chinese government passed legislation in 1992 laying claim to four-fifths of the sea’” (Marshall np.) With concern of this growing Chinese presence in such a strategic region, the countries who have claims in this region alongside the U.S. have amped up military presence in the body of water. Obama’s first course of action was to implement a pivot of naval assets into the waterway. The question that is now posed is, was Obama tough enough on the Chinese way to passive. As China grows to compete with the U.S. as a superpower did Obama take the right courses of action to limit this Chinese growth. Obama’s Failure was that he couldn’t stop Chinese expansion which has left china in a stronger position with in the area that the surrounding countries are having to act into their own

China has used historical claims to justify its territorial usurpations in the South China Sea. China’s territorial claims are causing conflict in the region as Beijing seeks to control more area of the South China Sea, with one such example being the declaration of Chinese control out to the “Nine dashed line.” Additionally, it is only in the last one hundred or so years that China has

The South China Sea is worth 5.3 trillion dollars. This is enough for China to threaten military action for claim over the wealth (Fensom). How important is this body of water?

In the article “One of the World’s Biggest Fisheries Is on the Verge of Collapse”, author Rachael Bale talked about China’s actions towards South China Sea are putting food supplies, homes, and lives of millions and environment at risk. In the early years, fishermen could fish freely in the South China Sea. As years go by, many of the them were prohibited to fishing in the South China sea. They are now facing a situation whether if they can feed their family. The reason being that China took a forceful action towards the control of the sea. That is to not allow foreigner to fish in the sea. China set up Coast Guards near the region. These troops will attack those foreign fishermen if spotted. According to the article, “China’s decision created

Under the Obama administration, the term rebalancing has been stated when it comes to the relationships in the South China Sea. The point of rebalancing has come up when speaking about the confrontation in the South China Sea. The idea is that the United States wants to restore the original agreement by UNCLOS in order to give its allies a fair piece of the South China Sea and its resources. China views this not as rebalancing, but as suppression. China has stated that the United States just wanted to subdue China in the South China Sea and stop it development so it cannot compete. This along with other factors has created greater tension between these two powerful nations.

Mr. President it’s been an ongoing territorial dispute between Japan and China over isolated islands and has been going on for decades but lately tensions have escalated. The problems that had manifested are the control for the maritime resources, the military balance of power in Asia. Also, we know the distrust between Japan and China because of activism, and the need for power. We should get involved because these are our allies and we don’t want china to take advance of japan because their military is more strong and advance. Rightful these islands belong to Japan because we took it from them as post during world war 2. China’s leaders are hoping to increase their military more in the east china seas. Because we are the united states of America will have to do something I think we should let these countries share these islands and to make sure one country don’t try to take control one the islands we send more navy sailors to sail the water to make sure these countries are comprosiming. We can’t let them work it out because we did that for years and the situation is getting worse, china military is advance rapidly and because japan changed their constitution, them spend more money on their self-defense force. We can’t sit back and do nothing so we should do something before their military forces get stronger. We already have troops in these islands because alongside with our allies

As of today, China has expanded and built over seven artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2014. The South China Sea has recently come to be a major problem in Asia as issues have risen over who has rights of passage and claims in this area. The Chinese of recent have been making territorial claims in the South China Sea that are in areas of free passage for many other Asian countries and the United States. In October 2015, a U.S. guided missile destroyer encountered one of the artificial islands and China’s response was that it would “take any measure” to maintain its security in “their territory”. The Chinese have been questioned in the Permanent Court of Arbitration by the Philippines after claiming rights to historical locations in the South China Sea, which violates sovereign rights of the Philippines, yet China responded to this outcome with refusal and has continued to advance itself in the territory causing huge disputes with its neighboring countries as freedom of navigation has been compromised through China’s actions.. In order to guarantee resolution and maintain the freedom of navigation aspect of international law there needs to be a foreign policy put in place that puts more United States military in the South China Sea with support from disputing countries like Japan and the Philippines as a way to make the issue multilateral and law abiding.

In July 2013, Wenweipo - the pro-PRC Chinese-language newspaper published an article titled “Six Wars China is sure to fight in the next 50 years”. According to this article, after unification of Taiwan (year 2020 to 2025), China will take the second war: Reconquest of Spratly Islands (year 2025 to 2030) and “China will send the ultimatum to countries surrounding the Islands with the deadline of 2028. The countries having disputes on the sovereignty of Islands can negotiate with China on preserving their shares of investments in these Islands by giving up”. In 1999, two Chinese military colonels – authors of the book namely “Unlimited War” suggested using an “unlimited war” to solve the disputing in the South China Sea. These authors said that, to avoid a war does not mean that not using military force and a conflict is indispensable. However, there is one more important thing that to control the intensities of conflict that. It is necessary to conduct some special activities to prove the sovereignty of China in the disputing Spratly Islands but do not let this activities increase to the total war. These things prove that the potential war between Vietnam and China in the future could be come true.

The dispute over the South China Sea denotes the process of power rebalancing while China rising as a hegemony in East Asia. China craves for more resources and power and decides to effectuate that by controlling more maritime territory. This act impelled the United State to align with the Philippines to balance with China. In a realism world, U.S. has adequate reason to intervene for fear for China becoming too strong a power.

The territorial and maritime disputes over the South China Sea (SCS) have been ongoing for decades. The disputes have been considered to be one the fiercest-contested in Asia. The South China Sea is an enclosed sea surrounded by several different states. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, and Malaysia all surrounded the South China Sea. The main cause of tension in this dispute is because China claims to have “historical sovereignty” over all of the South China Sea. Associations of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have come up with different discussions and suggestions on how to end the disputes with favorable conditions for all contending states. They use the principles of the United Nation Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and form the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). The states surrounding the South China Sea possess 12 nautical miles territorial sea and 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Thus, the South China Sea is not only international waters, instead, it is also overlapping exclusive economic zones. According to UNCLOS, disputes over exclusive economic zones must be resolved through negotiations by the contending states. Many of these contending Southeast Asian states have negotiated their maritime boundaries, however, China fails to comply. China claims that it owns all of the South China Sea, and therefore, has no need to

After a period of peace, disputes once again transpired in 1988 and 1995. In 2002, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reached an agreement to keep peace within all parties tied in with the South China Sea as they were to refrain from taking any action on the uninhabited island chains located in the Sea. This Declaration of Conduct kept the region peaceful up until 2009 when China publicly claimed territory on the entire South China Sea . As the tension intensified so did China’s aggressive behavior, as they made it clear in 2012 and 2013 that legal proceedings against them were not going to make a difference on their goal to dominate the region. In 2013, China began the operations to transform these uninhabited islands into military infrastructures . In the last two years counting up to today, China’s rapid island building has continued despite publicly claiming that they have halted all construction. This is where the United States enters the situation as they have called on China to shut down all reclamation efforts on the Spratly Islands where China has transformed six coral reefs (Subi Reef, Gaven Reef, Huges Reef, Johnson Reef, Mischief Reef, Cuarteron Reef) into naval bases, airstrips, and weapon and surveillance facilities .

In as much as China’s increasingly assertive claims in the South China Sea to various islands are a way to bolster their reach territorially for rights related to fishing and other resource rights, but more importantly they also extend beyond that to exhibit China’s global ambitions.

Nowadays, the conflict of territory solving in the world causes many complicated problems among countries, as well as tensions in foreign policies. One of these conflicts is the dispute in South China Sea between China and six neighbor ASEAN countries. With the intervention of the United States, the issue turns to be more serious as it attracts a lot of concerns from international community. This research tries to find a clear way of understanding the South China Sea conflict, specifically about the effort of China and Vietnam to gain the control over the two groups of islands: Paracel and Spratly. The hypothesis intends to express the possibility about Vietnam’s victory in this conflict with the help of the United States.

During his keynote address at the opening of the 30th Asia-Pacific roundtable, Malaysian Prime Minister said, “We will continue to rely on diplomacy and dialogue to peacefully resolve difference and disputes. We will do so in accordance with and in adherence to the norms, customs, and principles of international law" (Cheng, 2016). Disputes in the SCS have been a long-standing issues amongst claimants such as Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Republic of China. Apart from territorial disputes, the SCS holds a critical geostrategic importance due to its strategic location and energy reserves (Kaplan, 2011). Increased of China assertive action in the SCS and reclamation work in Spratlys has disturbed the SCS claimants and its users. In early 2013, Philippines have initiated an arbitration case against China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague (Xue Lei, 2016). Indonesia recently involved with the SCS disputes when Chinese fishing vessel encroached into Natuna Islands waters and Indonesian war ship has fired a warning shot toward the Chinese fishing vessel. Subsequently the Indonesian president visited Natuna Islands and held a meeting onboard the war ship as to send a stern warning about the country 's commitment to protecting its sovereignty (Gomez, 2016). In addition to that, the United States interest in the freedom of navigation with the rebalancing strategy for its strategic presence