The Southern China Sea Dispute

Thus, the area holds significant economic importance for Asia and the Pacific which is at risk with mounting tensions and aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea. “Additionally, in regards to the legitimacy of the conflict, The Permanent Court of Arbitration, which serves as a arbitral tribunal to solve disputes in the international community in accordance with the UN and international law, ruled China’s “nine-dash line” claims in the South China Sea, its occupation of Mischief Reef, its denial of access to Scarborough Shoal, its island building in the Spratly’s, and its harassment of others in the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as illegitimate actions.” (Vuyling) Thus, the legality of China’s expansion and claims to the territory furthers the problem to entail U.S to intervene as under the U.S. Freedom of the Seas Program such actions goes against international law and disrupt free naval activities in the area.

China would set up defense toward illegal actions of the foreign fishermen. One of the fish man said to the author, “One minute you will see an airplane, then there is naval boat. If we keep going over there, maybe we won’t be able to go home to see our family. It is just not the Philippine, but Vietnamese are forbidden to the sea as well (Bale 2016).” The attacking of the civilian is one of the main causes of the tension. To make the case worse, there is conflict when a country tries to defense its own territory. The article mentioned, “Indonesian maritime law enforcement officials arrested eight Chinese on charges of illegal fishing. The fishermen were less than three miles near the water from Indonesia’s Natuna Island. Under international law, the land belongs to Indonesian, but they are partially overlap with China’s U-shaped line claims. So, the China says it has the right to fish there (Bale 2016).” There is always conflict when international law and country’s law comes head to head, because no country is willing to give up their own property. China refuse to participate in any solution which has stretched out the tension more. As previously mentioned, the Philippines brought this case to the in Permanent Court of Arbitration but China chose to continue to ignore the decision of the Court. United States is an ally of the Philippines. There will be billions of deaths if a war between United States and China breaks

Mr. President it’s been an ongoing territorial dispute between Japan and China over isolated islands and has been going on for decades but lately tensions have escalated. The problems that had manifested are the control for the maritime resources, the military balance of power in Asia. Also, we know the distrust between Japan and China because of activism, and the need for power. We should get involved because these are our allies and we don’t want china to take advance of japan because their military is more strong and advance. Rightful these islands belong to Japan because we took it from them as post during world war 2. China’s leaders are hoping to increase their military more in the east china seas. Because we are the united states of America will have to do something I think we should let these countries share these islands and to make sure one country don’t try to take control one the islands we send more navy sailors to sail the water to make sure these countries are comprosiming. We can’t let them work it out because we did that for years and the situation is getting worse, china military is advance rapidly and because japan changed their constitution, them spend more money on their self-defense force. We can’t sit back and do nothing so we should do something before their military forces get stronger. We already have troops in these islands because alongside with our allies

From an international relations perspective, the Taiwan Strait, one of the most likely conflict zones in the Asia-Pacific region, has been dubbed the “Balkan Peninsula of the East.” The status of Taiwan has been one of the most intricate issues in international relations arena for the past decades. The Taiwan question is essentially an extension of the “two Chinas” problem, which creates a dilemma for accommodating

In July 2013, Wenweipo - the pro-PRC Chinese-language newspaper published an article titled “Six Wars China is sure to fight in the next 50 years”. According to this article, after unification of Taiwan (year 2020 to 2025), China will take the second war: Reconquest of Spratly Islands (year 2025 to 2030) and “China will send the ultimatum to countries surrounding the Islands with the deadline of 2028. The countries having disputes on the sovereignty of Islands can negotiate with China on preserving their shares of investments in these Islands by giving up”. In 1999, two Chinese military colonels – authors of the book namely “Unlimited War” suggested using an “unlimited war” to solve the disputing in the South China Sea. These authors said that, to avoid a war does not mean that not using military force and a conflict is indispensable. However, there is one more important thing that to control the intensities of conflict that. It is necessary to conduct some special activities to prove the sovereignty of China in the disputing Spratly Islands but do not let this activities increase to the total war. These things prove that the potential war between Vietnam and China in the future could be come true.

Japan and People’s Republic of China have been in a long dispute over a group of islands off the coast of Taiwan. This dispute over the islands has cause a confusion on the actual names, though to the western world they are known as the Pinnacle Islands. Under Japan’s claim of ownership they are known as Senkaku Islands, Senkaku is a rough translation from the English name for the islands, while under the claim of China they are known as the Diaoyu Islands, Diaoyu means “to fish” in Chinese. The islands themselves set very close to the east of China’s mainland and west of Japan’s Okinawa Island. For this current event paper I will include the actors of this conflict with a brief history of the conflict from the view point of each actor, what interest each actor possess that causes claims to this islands difficult, what each actor hope to get out of the islands, what strategies and policies that have been or are taking place to help, in some cases not help, settle this dispute, and what institutions attempt to bring to the negotiation table to ease the tension.

From the beginning of his presidency, President Obama determined that increasing our strategic focus on the Asia-Pacific Region and rebalance our national power and resources toward this region. This shift from the war footing in Iraq and Afghanistan to an increased peace and stability in East Asia was determined to be in the best national interests of the United States in the 2015 National Security Strategy. This strategic shift would have two major focus areas. First, the United States would focus on peace and stability in East Asia through sustained commitment to our traditional allies; second, we would build a cooperative, constructive relationship with China that addressed our differences. China’s aggressive actions in the East China Sea have tested the viability of this strategy. China declared a zone in this area that included the Senkaku Islands which Japan also claims as its own territory. While the United States has stated that it is a sovereignty dispute and will not take an official position, it stands by our allies in the region directly affected by this action; Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The United States must apply a strategic approach in pursuit our four enduring national interests:

In the Western Pacific, the South China Sea is a global crossroads that holds strategic importance for many nations world wide. The South China Sea stretches from the Taiwan and Luzon Straits in the north to Indonesia and the Strait of Malacca in the south with Vietnam on the west and the Philippines and Borneo on the east. In total size, the South China Sea surpasses the Mediterranean Sea. However, unlike this Near-Eastern comparator, territorial disputes and conflicting claims threaten the movement of global trade through the South China Sea, thus unbalancing regional stability in the Asia-Pacific. Claimants include the bordering coastal countries of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (a.k.a. Taiwan), the

Nowadays, the conflict of territory solving in the world causes many complicated problems among countries, as well as tensions in foreign policies. One of these conflicts is the dispute in South China Sea between China and six neighbor ASEAN countries. With the intervention of the United States, the issue turns to be more serious as it attracts a lot of concerns from international community. This research tries to find a clear way of understanding the South China Sea conflict, specifically about the effort of China and Vietnam to gain the control over the two groups of islands: Paracel and Spratly. The hypothesis intends to express the possibility about Vietnam’s victory in this conflict with the help of the United States.

In early 1895, Japan base its Sovereignty claim on the fact that it included the islands as terra nullius that known as an unoccupied territory and has been incessantly inhabiting the islands. But, China argues that it exposed the islands long before and quotes more than a few historical documents that was mention in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) which talk about the islands as part of Taiwan in 1683. After the merger of the island by Japan in 1895, the non-government were used a part of the islands for own profit with providing the place for the worker who work in his fish processing plant until World War II. Then, the island was claim by the government of the PRC in end of 1971 after two years make a report by an UN which has inform that the area has possibility of substantial oil and gas reserves. In 1972, The claim of this island was gave a much important by the Republic of China (ROC) which had already in February 1971, and once more on June 1971, it is frankly opposite the return of the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands as part of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan (Drifte, 2013)

The South China Sea is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, as much as 50 per cent of the global oil tankers shipments pass through its waters. It also holds rich fishing stock and large oil and gas reserves. The territorial dispute over the group of islands is considered to be one of the most complex political and legal dispute in Asia as it involves the concept of sovereignty. The geographical nature of the area in dispute has been categorised as a semi-enclosed sea which is surrounded by China, Taiwan and most of the ASEAN

The dispute over the South China Sea denotes the process of power rebalancing while China rising as a hegemony in East Asia. China craves for more resources and power and decides to effectuate that by controlling more maritime territory. This act impelled the United State to align with the Philippines to balance with China. In a realism world, U.S. has adequate reason to intervene for fear for China becoming too strong a power.

We must first ask ourselves what is the territorial dispute, that we have today and why is it important to understand this dispute and learn about it, as political analysts we must learn to look at the broader picture that is given to us, and take a look at all aspects before formulating a contingency plan to avoid any unnecessary military actions or starting a war.

As of today, China has expanded and built over seven artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2014. The South China Sea has recently come to be a major problem in Asia as issues have risen over who has rights of passage and claims in this area. The Chinese of recent have been making territorial claims in the South China Sea that are in areas of free passage for many other Asian countries and the United States. In October 2015, a U.S. guided missile destroyer encountered one of the artificial islands and China’s response was that it would “take any measure” to maintain its security in “their territory”. The Chinese have been questioned in the Permanent Court of Arbitration by the Philippines after claiming rights to historical locations in the South China Sea, which violates sovereign rights of the Philippines, yet China responded to this outcome with refusal and has continued to advance itself in the territory causing huge disputes with its neighboring countries as freedom of navigation has been compromised through China’s actions.. In order to guarantee resolution and maintain the freedom of navigation aspect of international law there needs to be a foreign policy put in place that puts more United States military in the South China Sea with support from disputing countries like Japan and the Philippines as a way to make the issue multilateral and law abiding.

There is a stark contrast between the schisms of the twentieth century and the ones of the twenty-first. The wars of the twentieth were primarily fought on dry land, in Europe, however, in the twenty-first century, the military, economic, and demographic focus of the globe has become increasingly maritime. Maritime including the sea, air, and outer space, because ever since the aircraft carriers and satellites were put into use, the air and outer space have become interconnected with naval warfare and military activities. East Asia is a large and vast area, stretching from the Arctic to the Antarctic, known for its broken array of shorelines and archipelagos from the Kim Islands all the way to New Zealand. While