South China Sea Dispute –

Analysis

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Geographical Location

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 Background
• The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean
which is of around 35,00,000 square kilometres (14,00,000 sq mi). The
sea carries tremendous strategic importance; one-third of the world's
shipping passes through it, carrying over $3 trillion in trade each year,
it contains lucrative fisheries, which are crucial for the food security of
millions in Southeast Asia. Huge oil and gas reserves are believed to
lie beneath its seabed.
• The region has proven oil reserves of around 1.2 km³ (7.7
billion barrels), with an estimate of 4.5 km³ (28 billion barrels) in
total. Natural gas reserves are estimated to total around 7,500 km³
(266 trillion cubic feet). A 2013 report by the U.S. Energy
Information Administration raised the total estimated oil reserves
to 11 billion barrels.

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• Several countries have made
competing territorial claims over
the South China Sea. Such
disputes have been regarded as
Asia's most potentially dangerous
point of conflict. Both
the People's Republic of
China (PRC) and the Republic of
China (ROC, commonly known
as Taiwan) claim almost the entire
body as their own, demarcating
their claims within what is known
as the nine-dotted line/ nine dash
line, which claims overlap with
virtually every other country in the
region.

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 Present Dispute
• Tensions between China and both the Philippines and Vietnam have
recently cooled, even as China increased its military activity in the
South China Sea by conducting a series of naval maneuvers and
exercises in March and April 2018. Meanwhile, China continues
to construct military and industrial outposts on artificial islands it has
built in disputed waters.
• The United States has also stepped up its military activity and naval
presence in the region in recent years, including freedom of navigation
operations (FONOPs) in January and March 2018. In a speech during
his November 2017 visit to Southeast Asia, President Donald J. Trump
emphasized the importance of such operations, and of ensuring free
and open access to the South China Sea. Since May 2017, the United
States has conducted six FONOPs in the region.

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 Contd…
• The nine-dash line area claimed by the Republic of China, later the
People's Republic of China (PRC), which covers most of the South China
Sea and overlaps with the exclusive economic zone claims of Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

• Due to its economic and geostrategic importance, the South China Sea
becomes a venue of several complex territorial disputes that have
been the cause of political as well as military conflict and tension
within the region and throughout the Indo-Pacific.

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 UNCLOS and EEZ
• As the disputes over the South China Sea escalated day by day, the
global community took several steps to reach a settlement. The UN
concluded a law in 1982 due to establish a legal framework to balance
the economic and security interest of coastal states.
• The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which
came into force in 1994, enshrines a 200-nautical mile area to extend
sole exploitation rights to coastal nations over marine resources.
• However, the area, officially called as the Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ), was never intended to serve as a security zone, and UNCLOS also
guarantees wide-ranging passage rights for naval vessels and military
aircraft.
• Despite being signed and ratified by all concerned countries in the
region, the interpretation of UNCLOS in the South China Sea is still
fiercely disputed.
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 Effects
• Tensions increasing between nations.
• Geopolitics
• Passage of trade through South China Sea
• War

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Thank you

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