We believe we want peace in South China Sea and not South China Sea into pieces and for that we need to come up to a conclusion on South China Sea dispute, which by the way we would like to say China does not even recognize as a dispute as it clearly says “We own South China Sea”. The area of south china sea, China claims that it owns is highlighted by what is popularly known as the nine-dash line, which was historically the ten-dash line as claimed by Taiwan.
Recently, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo broke silence on China’s illegal acquisition of land in the South China Sea, declaring its claims to be “unlawful”. This has surged the ongoing tensions between the two countries which can be concluded by one of the statements given by a Chinese Embassy spokesperson who called out the United States by asking them to “stop its attempts to disrupt regional peace and security”.
The U.S is targeting the legal claims by Beijing over the majority of the portion of the South China Sea.China claims south china sea saying it has “territorial claims” while Pompeo says China’s claims are invalid as there are no “lawful territorial claims”. We believe it is better to discuss a matter before settling it than to settle a matter and then discuss it. The issues and conflicts arising because of the nine-dash line is simply because the matter has been settled by China as they have passed their own judgement before actually discussing it as it feels whatever the rest of the world has to stay is redundant.
The new U.S policy is a clear rejection of China’s “nine-dash line” through which it has claimed most of the sea. Pompeo also said that Beijing has offered no coherent legal basis for its ‘Nine-Dashed Line’ claim in the South China Sea since formally announcing it in 2009”. U.S is using its freedom of navigation as a tactic to challenge the claims of China.
Pompeo declared “Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them”. According to the U.S, China’s claims on the natural resources like fisheries, oil, gas reserves in the Scarborough Shoal, Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal are questionable and so are the efforts of China in not allowing the coastal countries of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia to claim the waters of the South China Sea. “The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo said. This has led to tensions between the two countries which would give rise to sanctions in the future. In one of the editorials released in China said that Pompeo’s announcement was “despicable”, thus accusing the United States. It also stated that China’s claims are in accordance with the international law and the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) along with the historical rights. There is also a possibility of a clash between the U.S and Chinese ships which might lead to mutual defense treaties and a clash of power. According to Stilwell, the Assistant Secretary of State “Nothing is off the table”.
Pompeo says that the unlawful claims and actions of China is a complete harassment for other states. As said by William Shakespeare that the world is a stage and everyone dances in that with their own unique moves, we believe China portrays its unique dancing skills in Spratly and Paracel islands.
Is nine-dash line a lie? It seems like the letter ‘n’ has been removed from the word line. Based on facts we still do not have a conclusion as to whether nine-dash line claims stand valid or invalid, but one aspect we know for sure is that as long as this matter will stretch other states are to suffer, specially because of the artificial island building by China. Does Indian ocean belong to India? I believe no as Indian ocean is named after India but does not belong to India. Similarly, there have been claims which say that just because south china sea has the term China in it does not mean that it belongs to China.
Pompeo states that US rejects most maritime claims of China with respect to South China Sea. Here the question arises that maybe China’s maritime claims are invalid, but if US is so concerned then why does it not abide by the UNCLOS? Some say that US is no different than China as what China does is visible but US works like an invisible hand.
Written by- Aditi Agrawal, Abhishek Agarwal
Sources:
BBC News (2016, July 12). Why is the South China Sea contentious? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13748349
Quinn Colm (2020, July 14). China’s South China Sea claims “Unlawful”. Now What? Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/14/the-u-s-declared-chinas-south-china-sea-claims-unlawful-now-what/