Demystifying the South China Sea (SCS)

The South China Sea is one of the most contested maritime spaces in the world. It is bordered by China,
Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam. The South China Sea dispute can be
apprehended as a convergence of power politics and political economy with overlapping sovereignty
claims. As Robert D. Kaplan writes, “The battle of the South China Sea [will] be the defining battle of the
21st century.” Based on recent events, China’s behaviour has set the tone of the conflict. Of the four
disputed chain of islands in the South China Sea, the Paracel chain is the one that China’s military can
most easily access. It was here that the initial conflict emerged when South Vietnam occupied the
Paracels in 1974. This naval skirmish eventuated as a consequence of the South Vietnamese
government’s decision to award oil exploration contracts to Western companies. In 1988, another clash
took place between China and Vietnam over the Spratly Islands. China captured the Spratly Islands
through naval power. In 1992, China started occupying the Mischief Reef– an atoll already claimed by
the Philippines as its territory.

Geography: The South China Sea is of great economic and geo-strategic significance covering 3,500,000
square kilometers of surface area. It is identified as an western arm of the Pacific Ocean in Southeast
Asia. Encompassed by China’s south region, West of the Philippines, North of the Island of Borneo and
Vietnam’s east and south. The South China Sea’s ‘Heart of Islands’, the water’s body, is confined by the
Gulf of Thailand’s southern part and by the Malay Peninsula’s east coast. Both marginal seas of the
pacific-ocean connect the South China Sea, Philip- pine Sea with Luzon Strait and East China Sea with
Taiwan Strait. Moreover, it is collectively composed of several archipelagos clusters of small inhabited
islands, cays and shoals (Islets), reefs and seamounts numbering in the hundreds.

The Significance of the South China Sea: The presence of resources like oil, gas, and minerals present its
importance in the region. According to the World Bank, “The [South China Sea] holds a proven oil
reserve of 7 billion barrels and an estimated 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.” Nevertheless, this is
not a solitary reason for China’s aggression, the region also holds massive mineral deposits of
titaniferous magnetite, zircon, monazite, tin, gold, and chromite. Moreover, the South China Sea caters
to an annual global trade worth $5 trillion and acts as a linking channel for East Asia to Europe and Africa
while functioning as the main trade route for unfinished goods between ASEAN, Japan, and China,
something which makes the domain critical to global trade.

Who claims what?

China claims by far the largest portion of territory — an area defined by the “nine-dash line” which
stretches hundreds of miles south and east from its most southerly province of Hainan. Beijing says its
right to the area goes back centuries to when the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as
integral parts of the Chinese nation. So, these islands, and the sea that surrounds them, belong to China.
The Chinese claim has existed since 1947 and was largely unenforced until the leadership of Deng
Xiaoping in the 1970s and subsequent administrations. When looking at a map of the South China Sea,
China’s claim looks like a giant U superimposed on the region; which is why the Chinese claim is often
referred to as the U-Shape line.
Vietnam hotly disputes China’s historical account, saying China had never claimed sovereignty over the
islands before the 1940s. Vietnam says it has actively ruled over both the Paracels and the Spratlys since
the 17th Century.

The other major claimant in the area is the Philippines, which invokes its geographical proximity to the
Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of the grouping. Both the Philippines and China lay
claim to the Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China) — a little more than 100 miles
(160km) from the Philippines and 500 miles from China.

Malaysia and Brunei also lay claim to territory in the South China Sea that they say falls within their
economic exclusion zones, as defined by UNCLOS — the United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea. Brunei does not claim any of the disputed islands, but Malaysia claims a small number of islands in
the Spratlys.

Here a question arises: why are these tiny, uninhabitable, and remote islands important to China and
other Southeast Asian nations? The answer is simple: trade routes, resources and national pride. It leads
us to explore the significance of South China Sea.

What does the U.S have to do with the South China Sea?

As a crucial conduit for maritime trade, the South China Sea has attracted a lot of attention from the
United States. Initially, U.S. intervention in the region was motivated by the Cold War, however, in the
wake of the cessation of the Cold War, American interest in the region re-ignited because of its
involvement in energy exploration with several regional countries. This interest has been threatened by
Chinese expansionism. Several encounters between the U.S. and Chinese warships occurred in 2009,
culminating in a standoff between the USNS Impeccable and five Chinese vessels. This growing
antagonism between the two countries has also provided ASEAN ample opportunity to restructure its
cooperation, thereby significantly hampering Chinese expansionism.

In 2018, the U.S. flew bombers into the region as a show of force. During the same time, the U.S. Navy
and Japanese Maritime Self Defence Forces also conducted drills. Within Japan, the U.S. maintains a
large number of military bases with defence facilities. On January 24, two U.S. aircraft carriers was
reported in the South China Sea while China flew 39 aircraft near Taiwan. Admiral John C. Aquilino, the
commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, recently shared in an interview, “Over the past 20 years
we’ve witnessed the largest military buildup since World War Two by [China]. They have advanced all
their capabilities and that build-up of weaponization is destabilizing to the region.” Another recent
statement released by the U.S. Navy stated that, “the U.S. forces have been operating on a daily basis in
the South China Sea as they have been for more than a century.” It is highly unlikely that the United
States will abandon the South China Sea.

The United States is fostering allies in the Pacific, entering into military ties with Taiwan, South Korea
and Philippines while China is providing an alternate economic exchange system to countries like Iran
and Pakistan through OBOR and CPEC.

Ensuring China retreat from South China Sea?

On the economic front, many developed countries based MNCs have started shifting their labour-
intensive manufacturing bases -the backbone of Chinese Economic growth- to other countries in South
Asia as well as have started outsourcing as much as possible the supply chain from other countries. The
German-led European Union(EU)’s Comprehensive Investment Agreement(CIA) with China negotiated
and concluded -after seven years and 35 rounds of negotiations’ no-progress- in December 2020 has
been suspended by EU Lawmakers. Apart from the above, the trade war that started during the US
President Donald Trump administration between two leading world economies having a tremendous
negative impact on export-oriented China Economy had been so far retained by his successor Joe Biden
who took an oath of office in January 2021.

On the military front, Quadrilateral Security Dialogue(QUAD) member countries (US, India, Japan and
Australia) have started regular naval exercises involving their aircraft carriers, frigates and destroyers in
the Indo-Pacific in order to build strategic skills of interoperability despite oblique criticism from China
and her present opaque ally Russia. Apart from the above, the US warships have been on regular
crisscrossing the contested sea and visiting SCS’s littoral countries and doing port calls. After moving
through SCS, a British nuclear-powered submarine accompanying the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft
carrier has made a port-call to Busan in South Korea. And on August 02, the German navy frigate
“Bayern” set sail for the Indo-Pacific. The first such deployment in almost 20 years is meant to uphold
Freedom of Navigation(FONOP) in international waters, protect “open societies” and express support for
regional partners sharing Germany’s values, DM Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a statement.

On diplomatic front, Japan PM called Taiwan a ‘country’ instead of ‘region’, breaking an ongoing practice
which has been there since Tokyo cut off diplomatic relation with Taiwan in 1972, and an annual
Japanese defense white paper in mid-July 2021 calls Taiwan important to domestic and international
security for the first time, and it adds that “it is necessary that [Japan] pay close attention to the
situation with a sense of crisis more than ever before.” The presence of Taiwan’s de facto ambassador in
Joe Biden-Kamala Harris oath taking sends a strong diplomatic signal to belligerent Xi Jinping.

What International Law says?

Pakistan’s stance: During his four-day visit to China in February 2022, Prime Minister Imran Khan
attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics and met with the top Chinese
leadership. While the Chinese side reaffirmed its support for Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty,
independence and security, as well as promoting its socio-economic development and prosperity, the
Pakistani side expressed its commitment to One-China Policy and support for China on Taiwan, South
China Sea, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, according to a joint statement issued on the occasion.

Conclusion: The conflict about the South China Sea involves high stakes and complexities as many
powerful countries having claims over it. There are a lot of heavily armed countries protecting and
defending their interests. China is also safeguarding its interests and striving to extend its empire. The
South China Sea is vast and so insidious. China has stayed here for a long time and is known for its long
time. There is always the threat of war between countries and their allies internationally under the
radar. This dispute has the potential of the next war involving mass destruction and exploitation of
world’s largest maritime resources if not handled well by negotiations and management of the dispute.