alt

Activities of the Claimants

China

Satellite TV, daily newspaper to be provided at the so-called Sansha city

The China’s Hainan government said it will establish the South China Sea Satellite TV and the so-called Sansha Daily newspaper this year. According to reports, the South China Sea Satellite TV will meet the needs of residents and soldiers in the so-called Sansha, covering economic development and marine environment protection issues in the province.

Chinese navy training exercise in South China Sea, western Pacific

alt

A Chinese navy fleet of four warships will conduct training exercises in the South China Sea and the western Pacific Ocean after departing from Sanya in south China's Hainan Province. Four Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy warships -- the Jinggangshan, Lanzhou, Yulin and Hengshui, four ship-borne helicopters and a hovercraft will participate in the drills, said Jiang Weilie, commander of the South China Sea fleet.

Chinese ships harassed Vietnamese ship at Hoang Sa (Paracel) islands

On March 18th, Vietnamese fishing ship registered as QNG50949TS was harassed and “driven out” by a Chinese fishery patrol ship in Hoang Sa Islands.

China's fishery research ship explores Spratly Islands

China’s Fishery Research ship "Nanfeng" has arrived near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea to undertake scientific research. Nanfeng is China’s first self-designed and self-developed such vessel, dedicated to research in fishery resources and environmental science.

China's largest fishery patrol ship starts mission

China's largest fishery administration ship, "Yuzheng 312," began its maiden patrol on the South China Sea. The vessel has a displacement of 49.5 million tonnes and a navigation capability of 2,400 nautical miles with a maximum speed of 14 knots.

Vietnamese fishing boat shot by Chinese vessels

alt

While catching fish in the waters of Hoang Sa Islands on March 20th, the Vietnamese boat registered as QNg96382 of Mr. Bui Van Phai from An Hai commune, Ly Son island district, in the central province of Quang Ngai was chased and shot by several Chinese vessels. The ship’s ceiling was burned.

Vietnam

Vietnam demands China to end sovereignty violation

19th March | Vietnamplus

Vietnam once again rejects the so-called Sansha city and requests China to end violations of its sovereignty, and take no action to impede the legal fishing activities of Vietnamese fishing boats and fishermen, a representative of the National Boundary Commission stated on March 19th. The official went on to say that Vietnam has sufficient legal and historic evidence affirming its sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes in an action to protest a series of activities recently carried out by China in the two archipelagoes.

The Philippines

Philippine sea patrols to check on China naval exercises

alt

Philippine naval security forces are set to conduct “sovereignty patrols” in the South China Sea to check on possible intrusions by Chinese vessels conducting naval exercises within the country’s maritime boundaries, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said March 21st. “Our Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard [were] asked to verify [if there were] reported intrusions,” DFA spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez said.

Philippine President: Philippines-China relations to remain 'largely positive' under new leadership

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III expressed confidence that the relationship between the Philippines and China, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, will continue to be " largely positive." He expected the bilateral ties between the two countries to remain strong and continue to flourish under China's new leadership when addressing the opening ceremony of the 29th biennial convention of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc.

New Philippine envoy takes up South China Sea issue with ASEAN Secretary General

In a statement on March 22nd, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Ambassador Elizabeth Buensuceso, the new Philippine delegate to ASEAN, briefly took up the matter with the Secretary General as she presented her appointment letters on March 19th at the ASEAN Secretariat Headquarters in Jakarta. "(Buensuceso) noted that the arbitration proceedings filed by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) presents the most stable, most predictable and the most durable path to peacefully settle the issue," the DFA said. "She joined the Secretary General’s aspiration to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and to move positively the discussion on the Code of Conduct (COC) on the same issue starting this year," the statement continued.

Indonesia

Indonesia plans joint naval exercise in Southeast Asia

Indonesian Navy chief of staff Vice Adm. Marsetio said on March 21st that the Indonesian Navy would pitch the plan during the International Maritime Security Symposium in Jakarta, which is slated for December. The forum is expected to draw more than 45 navy chiefs from around the world. “We would like to give a short briefing that we have a plan to conduct the multilateral exercise. For the first step, we would like to invite all ASEAN members. It could also be ASEAN plus two, three or 10 [partner countries],” he said at the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue in Central Jakarta.

The U.S.

Top US Defense Official Reiterates US Commitment to Continued Security Cooperation with Philippines

The United States is determined to intensify its defense and security cooperation with the Philippines in support of the Philippines’ own efforts to build up its national defense capacity. This was the assurance given by US Department of Defense Deputy Secretary Dr. Ashton Carter during his call on Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Deputy Secretary Carter was accompanied by a number of US Defense and Military officials. The Deputy Secretary is the second highest ranking official in the US Defense Department.

US maintains Asian pivot position

alt

The new US Secretary of State John Kerry has quashed suspicions he harbours secret doubts about the wisdom of Washington's so-called "pivot" towards Asia, saying he is as wedded to the policy as his predecessor, Hillary Clinton. But, speaking to reporters in Washington this afternoon, Mr Kerry took issue with the term itself, saying the word "pivot" suggested America's deepening commitment to Asia would be at the expense of other regions. Mr Kerry said what the US was doing was "rebalancing" its global commitments. "The word pivot, I think, implied a departure from somewhere else and I don't think our rebalance and out engagement has to be at the expense of anybody else," Mr Kerry said. "So I think we're not rebalancing at the expense of important relationships in Europe and Mid East and elsewhere, but we are rebalancing and we are going to continue the commitment and we will continue the relationships."

Secretary John Kerry’s remarks with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

Regional Snapshots

Chinese president Xi Jinping arrives in Russia

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Moscow, kicking off a state visit to Russia. It is his first foreign visit as China’s head of state. Xi will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the development of the China-Russia strategic partnership and other major issues.

ASEAN, China review dialogue relations, cooperation

alt

The 14th ASEAN-China Joint Cooperation Committee (ACJCC) Meeting was held in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 15th to review ASEAN-China dialogue relations and cooperation over the past year. The meeting focused on the implementation of ASEAN-China joint cooperation projects and activities in politics-security, economics and culture-society, as well as initiatives and outcomes of the 15th ASEAN-China Summit.

Vietnam, Singapore relations thrive

Vietnam and Singapore discussed measures to strengthen bilateral cooperation at their seventh political consultation and the 3 rd exchange between the two countries’ foreign ministries in Hanoi. The meeting was co-chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Quang Vinh and Permanent Secretary of the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bilahari Kausikan. They stressed the importance of peace, stability, and maritime security in the East Sea , the implementation of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ six-point principles on the East Sea , the ASEAN-China Joint Declaration on the occasion of the 10 th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) towards the Code of Conduct (COC).

Commentaries & Analyses

South China Sea dispute a long time coming, but solutions are at hand

By Stephen Loosley

alt

The South China Sea is an area of intense competition and growing contest. The stakes are high: very high indeed. It is an area rich in potential for oil and gas. Its fish stocks are of real significance in the region and beyond. Beijing has made it clear that its strategic goal is to be the dominant maritime power over the “first island chain”. The US also has legitimate security concerns in the sea, insisting upon the free transit of its naval forces, while maintaining a watchful eye over Beijing’s growing military capabilities. We should not discount the possibility that a dispute over territory between China and one of the regional claimants could conceivably escalate into one involving China and the US. At the same time, it is clear that Washington has no intention of regarding the South China Sea as anything other than international waters in which freedom of navigation is accepted and guaranteed. Underpinning much Chinese strategic thinking is the determination to avoid a policy of containment, with Washington as the architect, similar to that which existed during the Cold War to deny the Soviet Union room for ideological and strategic expansion. As Michael Wesley has written, it means some of the existing mechanisms available for settlement of maritime disputes, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, are capable of exacerbating the disputes. We need other complementary mechanisms and here we can draw upon significant experience from the Cold War. A working model might be the Incidents at Sea Agreement, under which manoeuvres in areas of heavy shipping were avoided and a safe distance between vessels was maintained. There was to be no simulation of attacks or the launching of objects. Aircraft were to exercise caution. Perhaps most significantly, warning was to be provided to the other party prior to major military exercises at sea. While there is no magic to resolving disputes in the South China Sea, we can see a pattern by which tensions may be eased; confidence may be built; trust may be engendered; and dialogue may flow.

China using Senkakus dispute to test Japan, U.S.

By Michael Richardson

The potential commercial and strategic value of the South China Sea is many times greater for Beijing than its relatively small claim against Japan in the East China Sea. Why, then, has China been pursuing its claims against Japan over the disputed East China Sea islands in a much more muscular way in late 2012 and early 2013 than its case involving Southeast Asian claimants in the South China Sea? It is evidently testing Japan and the U.S. at a time when each appears relatively weak and hesitant. Beijing knows that if it can make headway with its East China Sea island claim against two big allied powers like the U.S. and Japan, it will be easier in future to overawe its smaller Southeast Asian rival claimants in the South China Sea. But Beijing also decided to intensify para-military and other operations against Japan, a nation whose wartime aggression is seared into Asian historical memory, because confrontations with smaller neighbors in the past few years have led to a regional backlash against China. The result has been a rising mistrust of China, increased defense spending to guard against Chinese assertiveness, a turn to the U.S. as a counterbalance to Chinese power, the strengthening of U.S. alliances in Asia and development of security partnerships as a hedge against Chinese coercion. All the Southeast Asian countries involved are far smaller in population size, economic strength and military power than China. China is therefore in an exposed propaganda position in the South China Sea. It can easily be portrayed as a regional bully. Indeed, it is cast in an aggressive light in countless news media reports, and government and nongovernment analyses, that circulate widely outside China. The reputational damage to China’s international image and its self-proclaimed “peaceful rise” doctrine is already serious. It will get worse for as long as Beijing maintains what appears to most of the outside world to be a policy of overweening power and sabre-rattling.

US Must Adopt Law of the Sea

By Ziad Haider

alt

Given that the contesting parties in the South China Sea are actively resorting to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to bolster their claims, ratification is critical for US credibility. Even China whose claims are largely based on historical record cites UNCLOS to which it is a party, for example, in adopting a “straight base line approach” to its claim in the East China Sea. In January, the Philippines filed a claim with an UNCLOS tribunal alleging that China’s nine-dash claim to the South China Sea is contrary to UNCLOS. Whether other parties bring such claims remains to be seen. Although arbitration offers a clean and contained alternative to fluctuating diplomacy and skirmishes, precluding US “interference” as China desires, China does not view arbitration as a bilateral solution and, moreover, assumes that time is on its side. As such, for the United States to have the standing to call for a much needed rules-based approach to these disputes, it must formally adopt the rules. Asia’s maritime disputes are a disruptive force for US interests; however, they present an opportunity. A shortsighted view would conclude that the opportunity presented is a strategic opening for the United States and a regional tilt given recent Chinese heavy handedness. The reality is that states in the region have no interest in choosing sides. According to the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 report, they will instead increasingly be pulled in both directions: economically toward China and security-wise toward the US. Moreover, given Sino-US economic interdependence, a China that perceives itself subject to containment and doubles down militarily is not in US interests. The opportunity presented instead is for the United States to demonstrate leadership in the region that combines deft diplomacy, considered military engagement and an adherence to international law as an enabling rather than enfeebling force. Doing so will test its ability to remain an effective Pacific power while navigating the rise of another – all this to preserve an order with which US security and economic interests are inextricably linked in this century.

CoC and its implications for the United States

By Ian Storey

The dispute over a CoC poses a tricky policy dilemma for the United States, which has huge economic, strategic and political stakes in the South China Sea. The United States supports a CoC, but China suspects Washington wants a code that is designed only to constrain the behavior of the PRC and not that of the other claimants. And most importantly, Chinese officials often claim that the Obama administration’s “pivot” toward Asia is simply a long-term strategy to encircle or contain China, and that Washington has used the South China Sea as a pretext to “return” to Asia. In reality, the United States has little choice but to maintain its policies prioritizing the Asia Pacific, supporting ASEAN-centered diplomatic efforts to quell tensions and produce a CoC, and initiating other steps that could restore a durable peace to the South China Sea. Likewise, the United States should continue to forge a coalition of like-minded states who can try to shape and influence China’s behavior and convince the Chinese leadership that its assertive posture in the maritime domain runs counter to its own interests and those of  the region. At the same time, America and its regional partners must also seek to reassure the PRC that is it not being ganged up on or that it is the target of a policy of containment. Whether the new Chinese leadership is in the mood to listen remains to be seen.

Click here for pdf file.