South China Sea Dispute
SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE :
The south china sea channel is the one of the busiest shipping channel and is rich with islands ,fisheries, oil and gas deposits. It is also one of the most disputed areas in the southeast Asia and has the most potential for armed conflict.
THE CONFLICT :
The China, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei holds territorial claims over the SouthChina Sea, based on various subjects of geography and history.
The disputes include the islands(spratly islands,paracel islands ,Scarborough islands), reefs, banks, and other features of south china sea
WHAT IS THE WHOLE ARGUMENT ABOUT :
• Territory and sovereignty
• Other countries want China to withdraw
from setting up their military.
• Spratly and paracel group
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| South China Sea |
WHO CLAIMS WHAT:
• China has been putting historical facts and presenting that the Xia and Han dyansty had ruled in the south china sea water and hence China claims 80% of south china sea. In the mid 20th century they made their own map denoting the maximum part of south china sea under their territory which we call is Nine dash line.
Nine dash line is a geographical marks by china to asserts its claims. It extends as far as 2000 km from the Chinese mainland and reaches close to Indonesia and Malaysia
• Vietnam refuses the historical claims of china and says that their ruler ruled in the 17th century in south china and they too claims the maximum parts of south China sea. They also claims sovereignty over the paracel and spratly islands.
• Philippines wants the spratly islands,
Scarborough, because they are close to it. They stand every time with the
UNCLOS.
• Malaysia wants the territory water and
some parts of spratly islands.
• Brunei only wants the south china sea
along their boundary.
CLASHES:
Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam are making artificial islands in the south china sea and setting up military bases.
China has made many artificial islands and military bases compared to the Philippines ,Taiwan and Vietnam.
In 1974, the Chinese seized the paracel from
Vietnam ,killing more than 70 Vietnamese troops .
In 1988 again there were clashes between
Vietnam and China in spratly islands
In 2012-13 ,China and Philippines engaged
in the long time stand off in the Scarborough shoal.
In 2014 China introduced a large structure
with equipment for drilling an oil well into the water near the
paracel islands which led to many clashes
between Vietnamese and Chinese.
PCA
Permanent court of arbitration ,also known as the south china sea arbitration, brought by the Philippines against China under the united nations convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS) over the parts of South China Sea and Nine dash line.
PCA VS CHINA
There was no legal basis for china to claim historic right to resources within the area falling within nine dash line
UNCLOS does not provide for the group islands
In 2013 China declared that they are not
going in the arbitration and sent its elaborated position
In 2016 ,the PCA was in favour of the Philippines. And also pointed out that China had no historical rights based on the nine dash line
After this China started building islands. Installing runways and running patrols, and said that the judgement was null.
WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT:
- Billion barrel untapped oil
- Trillion cubic feet natural gas, and also 40% of global liquefied natural gas trade transited through the South china sea in 2017-18
- Every year trillion dollar of trade,($3.38 trillions in 2016 )and business,80% of the China’s oil imports arrive via the strait of Malacca, Indonesia , then sail across the south china sea to reach china.
- Water is rich in biodiversity, having a lot of fishes and suitable for fishing business ,and it led to many conflicts in the water for this purpose.
- Short route between Indian ocean and Pacific ocean
US CONCERNS
The United states which maintains important interests in ensuring freedom of navigation and securing sea lines of communications. China’s claims threaten SLOCS which are important maritime passages that facilitates trade and movement of naval forces
United states has a role in preventing
military escalation resulting from the territorial dispute.
To protect its political security and economic interest in the region the united sates has challenged China’s assertive territorial claims and land reclamation efforts
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