To best understand the current situation in the South China Sea from a legal point of view, it is imperative to refer back to the judgment passed by the Arbitral Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration last year, in response to the claims brought by Philippines against China, primarily regarding maritime rights, entitlements and zones in the South China Sea, as well as for the protection of the marine life and the environment of the region, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982. The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China) On 22 January 2013, the Republic of the Philippines instituted arbitral proceedings against the People's Republic of China under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the "Convention"). Read More US Warships in the South China Sea: A Prelude to War? Over the next half decade, Beijing launched a charm offensive across Southeast Asia, and the claimants refrained from provoking each other by occupying additional features. Through the first half of the twentieth century, the Sea remained quiet as neighboring states focused their attention on conflicts unfolding elsewhere. Then there's the Spratly Islands, of more than 700 reefs, islets, atolls and islands. The South China Sea Arbitration was conducted between the Republic of the Philippines and the Peoples Republic of China by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Even the French and Vietnamese could not be bothered to take advantage of the lapse in Chinese control, as they were preoccupied with the rapidly escalating war in Vietnam. In addition, the Tribunal also noted that despite Chinas absence from the proceedings, since it is a party to the UNCLOS, the decision of the Tribunal would, in fact, be binding upon it, pursuant to Article 296 (1)[5] and Article 11 of Annex VII[6]. Follow us on Instagram. Malaysia and Brunei say the islands are theirs as part of their EEZ. Now, as the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) heads towards working on the enforcement of this arbitration award from last year (2016), and attempting to employ a code of conduct for the South China Sea, it becomes even more important to look at the arbitral ruling from an objective vantage point. The code of conduct is set to be discussed at the Asean leaders' summit in November in the Philippines. The South China Sea Case (Philippines v. China) Convention on the Law of the Sea Annex VII Arbitral Tribunal 2016 2016 WL 5660362, E.D. Improved Essays. In response, both South and North Vietnam reinforced their remaining garrisons and seized several other unoccupied features. China asserts it is entitled to more than the 200 nautical miles from its shores. China and its neighbouring countries should work collectively to attain their goal ofsovereignty and security. Accordingly, Lawfare decided to prepare a backgrounder on the South China Sea that proceeds in two parts. Free Essay: Why South China Sea is victim of disputes? "There was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the 'nine-dash line'," the court said. II - Legal Value CLAIMANTS RESPONDENTS The Republic of Philippines (State) The People's Republic of China (State) SUMMARY The Philippines raised an arbitral proceeding against China and case was handled by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In February the flow is generally to the southwest; the strongest flow occurs in summer along the bulging part of Vietnam, with speeds of up to 3.5 miles (5.6 km) per hour generated by the strong southwestern monsoon. constituted under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)* on the case initiated by the Philippines in 2013 regarding China's claims and activities in the South China Sea.1 At the center of the dispute is China's nine-dash line, a vague depiction by China of its claim encompassing about 90 percent of the South China Sea.2 Since The Philippines also raised the issue under the relevant provisions of the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing of Collisions at Sea, 1972 (COLREGS). China says its first draft is ready but details on what it entails have not been released. Ken., September 28, 2016 (2016) Facts The Philippines (plaintiff) and China (defendant) are both parties to the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Law of the Sea. Please select which sections you would like to print: Even though water exists in three states, there is only one correct answer to the questions in this quiz. As the case proceeds in the background, China has adopted an increasingly assertive posture in the region. Similarly, the Scarborough Shoal, a 60 square mile (97 km) chain of rocks and reefs is claimed by both China and the Philippines. Predictably, China reacted negatively to the ruling, maintaining it was null and void. China may take assertive and inflammatory steps to defend its position. Once again, this phase of frenetic island occupation was cooled off by a longer period of inertia. The parties promised to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner.. The South China Sea Arbitration Award is the most legally significant development in the long-running, complicated, and multi-party territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea (SCS). He is also a Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution. These islands are modest, even diminutive, but they form the core of a fierce territorial dispute among six primary claimants: Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The Tribunal, in response to Submission 14 of the Philippines, opined that China had, in the course of the proceedings of this arbitration, aggravated and extended its disputes with Philippines, through its actions of dredging, artificial island-building and construction activities[35]. But even at this stage, the South China Sea was not seen as a priority by any of the claimants. Vietnam and the Philippines are also involved in artificial island construction in this area. The convention passed in 1982 states that areas that do not fall under EEZ should be international waters, shared by everyone and free for navigation. South China Sea map Five years after a landmark world court ruling against China's claims to a disputed sea, smaller Asian countries that contest Chinese maritime sovereignty have learned. But by the early 1970s, the claimants were at it once again. Published by the Lawfare Institute in Cooperation With, Lawfare Resources for Teachers and Students, Documents Related to the Mueller Investigation, all other claimants combined over the history of their claims, Civil Liberties and Constitutional Rights. It is hardif not impossibleto wade through these partisan claims (many of which constitute pure propaganda). Maritime disputes also extend beyond the South China Sea, as in the case of the Senkaku Islands and the Socotra Rock, which lie in the East China Sea. The arbitration is related to disputes between the Parties regarding the legal basis of maritime rights and entitlements, the status of certain geographic features, and the lawfulness of certain actions taken by China in the South China Sea; in particular, the following four issues, as raised by Philippines: While China and Philippines are both parties to the UNCLOS, China specifically made a declaration in 2006 to exclude maritime boundary delimitation from its acceptance of compulsory dispute settlement. The international community has been rallying for a diplomatic solution. A number of shipwrecks of trading ships that lie on the ocean's floor attest to a thriving trade going back centuries. It is a territorial dispute over a busy waterway. In the issue of Chinese interference with the living and non-living resources (primarily concerned with fishing practices in the South China Sea and oil and gas exploration and exploitation) of the Philippines, the Tribunal considered diplomatic statements from China to the Philippines and regulations related to the matter that China had passed domestically. Monsoons control the sea-surface currents as well as the exchange of water between the South China Sea and adjacent bodies of water. China has always argued for historic rights, as demarcated by the Nine Dash Line on its official maps of the region in question; other stakeholders, however, dispute this claim, as shown in the arbitral proceedings. The geopolitical analyst Robert D. Kaplan has formulated his book Asia's Cauldron on this thesis. In 2012, Beijing bore out some of these concerns when it snatched Scarborough Shoal away from the Philippines. For decades, all countries except for Brunei have carried out some sort of construction on the existing islands but China has outpaced other players. In its Award on Jurisdiction, the Tribunal clarified that: This is not a dispute concerning sovereignty over the features, notwithstanding any possible question concerning whether low-tide elevations may be subjected to a claim of territorial sovereignty. Manila pursued the matter in the permanent court of arbitrations in the Hague instead of diplomatic channels. In that year, the disputes in the South China Sea arose to fall within the "shadow of law" and move toward involving globally normative welfares in keeping the rule of law. The international Arbitral Tribunal on Tuesday issued its award on the arbitration case between Philippines and China over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) dispute. For the past seven years, China and nine other members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been discussing a new code of conduct for the South China Sea. The case study that follows demonstrates how Janes data can be quickly brought together to conduct a threat assessment of the Yulin-Yalongwan base in the South China Sea. In response to this escalatory move, Manila filed an arbitration case against China on January 22, 2013, under the auspices of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The strategic waterway is at the centre of long-simmering territorial disputes involving China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei - and the US has upped the stakes by . Tensions crested when Beijing forcibly occupied Johnson Reef, killing several dozen Vietnamese sailors in the process. Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan have military presence on some of these islands. South China Sea Arbitration Ruling: What Happened and Whats Next? Tensions in the South China Sea have several times pushed the countries involved to the verge of confrontation. 1293 Words; 6 Pages; "China's facilities, Chinese islands and reefs, are primarily for civilian purposes and even if there is a certain amount of defence equipment or facilities, it is for maintaining the freedom of navigation," he said. South China Sea Case Study; South China Sea Case Study. It is easily verifiable that China had continuous trade contact with what . They have many historical claims - some of which may be true, some of which may be false. 1612 Words; 7 Pages; Open Document. If there are clear guidelines, what's the fuss? Detention in Pakistan: The Means to an End or the End Itself? Being one of the busiest nautical . It is a dispute between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan. In 1955 and 1956, China and Taiwan established permanent presences on several key islands, while a Philippine citizenThomas Clomaclaimed much of the Spratly Island chain as his own. As a result, upwelling areas having colder surface temperatures and higher nutrient content are found off central Vietnam. The South China Sea disputes are maritime and island claims between different sovereign states in the region. The Philippines put forward three categories for classifying low-tide elevations: where a low-tide elevation is located within 12 miles of a high-tide feature[19], where the low-tide elevation is beyond 12 miles but within the states exclusive economic zone or continental shelf[20], and where the low-tide elevation is located beyond the areas of natural jurisdiction[21]. The South China Sea is an extremely significant body of water in a geopolitical sense. Additionally, the Tribunal also declared that it would honour Chinas declaration of 2006 and the UNCLOS and would neither delve into issues of maritime boundary delimitation or questions of sovereignty. The US regards the South China Sea as international waters, and wants it to be "free" for navigation under the UN maritime law. A BBC team flew over the disputed South China Sea islands in a US military plane in 2018 Months earlier, China landed bombers in the disputed territory to take part in drills on islands and. By mid 2015, China had built at least seven artificial islands in the South China Sea. The SouthChina Sea is a very large territory. The South China Sea is intentionally sited. Additionally, over the last year, Beijing has launched an accelerating land reclamation campaign across the South China Sea. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Since 2013, Beijing started extensive construction on the floating and submerged reefs of the Fiery Cross in the Spratly islands, installing airstrips and missile defence systems. These islands are modest, even diminutive, but they form the core of a fierce territorial dispute among six primary claimants: Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The sea has historically been an important trade route between China, southeast Asia, and going to India and the west. Worse, the stakes are high: the Sea is one of the primary routes for international trade, and many claimants believe that the Sea hides bountiful oil reserves in addition to its plentiful fishing stocks. At its narrowest it is 19 miles (31 km) wide and about 100 feet (30 metres) deep. China claims almost the entire stretch. Summary of Key Claims and Holdings The Philippines' claims fell into four general categories. The South China Sea Arbitration. In May 2009, Malaysia and Vietnam sent a joint submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf setting out some of their claims. One of the world's busiest waterways, the South China Sea is subject to several overlapping territorial disputes involving China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei. [1] The Philippines challenged China's reconstruction of seven islands on the Scarborough Shoal at a UN backed permanent court of arbitration in the Hague in 2013. The disputes are further entrenched by rampant nationalism, as each claimant attaches symbolic value to the South China Sea islands that far exceeds their objective material wealth. This line snakes around the edges of the South China Sea and encompasses all of the Seas territorial features as well as the vast majority of its waters. U.S. Navy USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Carrier Strike Group, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's JS Kaga (DDH . South China Sea dispute - latest updates Then, in 1946, China established itself on a few features in the Spratlys, and in early 1947, it also snapped up Woody Island, part of the Paracel Islands chain, only two weeks before the French and Vietnamese intended to make landfall. The inner zone of mud is characteristic of the continental shelf near the Mekong and Red river deltas, while the sediment of the deeper parts of the South China Sea is mainly composed of clay. The Luzon Strait, the main deep channel connecting the South China Sea with the Pacific Ocean, lies between Taiwan and the Philippines and has a depth of about 8,500 feet (2,600 metres). The sea's major feature is a deep rhombus-shaped basin in the eastern part, with reef-studded shoals rising up steeply within the basin to the south (Reed and Tizard banks and the Nanshan Island area) and northwest (Paracel Islands and Macclesfield banks). Then there are countries that are not geographically linked to the waterway, but have their strategic interests. If so many countries claim the waterway, who controls what? The Philippines also stated that it, does not seek in this arbitration a determination of which Party enjoys sovereignty over the islands claimed by both of them. In fact, at the end of World War II, no claimant occupied a single island in the entire South China Sea. China installed military runways on Mischief Reef and Subi Reef as well. The Tribunal also noted that this decision does not depend on the question of sovereignty, and that the Tribunal once again refrained from commenting on the matter. Chinas Foreign Ministry, further, stated its position with regard to the proceedings by publishing a Position Paper in 2014[7]. In addition, China has shown disagreement with Philippines decision to take the matter to arbitration and has decided neither to agree with the decision of the Tribunal nor to participate in the proceedings. Japan, in its race to counter China's growing influence in the region, is also involved. Or it could mean that China claims all the territorial features and all the waters enclosed by the nine-dash line, even those that exceed whats permitted under maritime law. The two states had quarreled over allegations of illegal poaching by Chinese fishermen. Hanoi says they ruled the islands since the 17th century, long before China. As Foreign Policy puts it, Theres no tenser set of waters in the world than the South China Sea. Over the last year, disputes in the South China Sea have dominated headlines, and they seem sure to continue to generate fresh national security issues. He also served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense. Home to one of the world's most important supply and trade lanes, the South China Sea is now a 21st century flashpoint. Washington, DC 20001. China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have overlapping claims on the South China Sea. To the south, off Vietnam, the shelf narrows and connects with the Sunda Shelf, one of the largest in the world, which covers the area between Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula and includes the southern part of the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, and the Java Sea. The essence of the subject-matter of the arbitration is the territorial sovereignty over the relevant maritime features in the South China Sea; China and the Philippines have agreed, through bilateral instruments and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, to settle their relevant disputes through negotiations; Philippines disputes would constitute an integral part of maritime delimitation between the two countries. It embraces an area of about 1,423,000 square miles (3,685,000 square km), with a mean depth of 3,976 feet (1,212 metres). The US Energy Information Agency estimates there are some 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves under the sea, exceeding what some of the world's biggest energy exporters have. The. On 22 January 2013, the Philippines instituted arbitral proceedings against China in a dispute concerning their respective "maritime entitlements" and the legality of Chinese activities in the South China Sea. Since the 1970s, the South China Sea has been a nest of competing sovereignty claims over the island features and ocean spaces by a number of adjacent countries. Manila and Washington have a mutual defence treaty which dates back to World War II. Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning accompanying navy vessels, conducts a military drill in the South China Sea. China's sweeping claims of sovereignty over the seaand the sea's estimated 11 billion barrels of untapped oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas have antagonized competing claimants. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In at least seven locations, Chinese vessels have poured tons of sand to expand the size of features occupied by China. Is there a resolution in sight? One of these disputes is occurring in the South China Sea. It doesn't look like. Show More. The seas major feature is a deep rhombus-shaped basin in the eastern part, with reef-studded shoals rising up steeply within the basin to the south (Reed and Tizard banks and the Nanshan Island area) and northwest (Paracel Islands and Macclesfield banks). The next consideration before the Tribunal was the demeanour of Chinas law enforcement vessels at Scarborough Shoal[33] and the lawfulness of these actions. It questioned Chinas claim to historical rights in the region, and established that Chinas state practice does not show that China had been enjoying any historical rights in the South China Sea; rather, it was enjoying the freedom of the high seas and since it did not create bar to other states usage of the same, it could not be understood as being a historical right. July 04, 2021. Credit: Official U.S. Navy page. For a while, the Declaration seemed to keep conflict at bay. Pursuant to this, the Tribunal issued its Award on Jurisdiction[9] in October 2015, in which it concluded that it did indeed have jurisdiction in the case, as per Philippines Final Submissions[10], and that Chinas lack of participation would not prove to be a bar to its proceedings. The Paracel islands are claimed by China and Vietnam. Again the Tribunal relied upon statements previously made by China to obtain their stance on the nature of the features, since China had neither submitted any document to the Tribunal nor had it discussed these in its Position Paper. By continuing this dispute, they are affecting their sovereignty and are also draining resources for no reason. For the last few years, China and its neighbors have been bluffing, threatening, cajoling, and suing for control of its resources.[2]. The deep portion, called the China Sea Basin, has a maximum depth of 16,457 feet (5,016 metres) and an abyssal plain with a mean depth of some 14,100 feet (4,300 metres). The US has also provided Manila with hi-tech military hardware for intelligence gathering and surveillance to counter China. Countries cannot claim sovereignty over land masses that are submerged or were submerged but that have now surfaced above high tide level because of illegal construction. Rather than fighting battles out on the Sea, though, the claimants began to needle each other through demarches and notes verbales. This issue brief finds that women have limited representation and voice across the top echelons, U.S.- CHINA | ECONOMIC and SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION, Chinese Companies Listed on Major U.S. Stock Exchanges. In particular, Beijing has taken an active role in subsidizing archeological digs to find evidence of exclusive Chinese usage of the Seas many features since time immemorial. Shallow channels are found on the east along the Philippine island chain and on the south between Borneo and Sumatra. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. This publication identifies Chinese nationalsserving in leadership positions in key, This report surveys the history behind the China-North Korea relationship and examines the, U.S.-China Economic and This provocation touched off confrontations between Vietnamese and Chinese vessels around the rig, as well as rioting against foreign-owned businesses in parts of Vietnam. It has vital trade arteries, with $5 trillion or about one third of the world's commerce passing through its waters, fisheries that account for 12 per cent of the global catch, and estimated reserves of eleven billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
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