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Keeping peace in South China Sea
Topic Started: Aug 15 2012, 06:24 PM (4,298 Views)
seWer Rat
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amateur sewer cleaner

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012 - 17:13

http://www.mmail.com.my/story/keeping-peace-south-china-sea-26751

WHAT do you call an ocean that sits atop more than 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, provides transit for $5.3 trillion worth of shipborne trade every year, and is bordered by a half-dozen nations with competing maritime and territorial claims? If you’re a geographer, the South China Sea.

If you’re a geostrategist, however, it’s a powder keg — and one that has been heating up dangerously over the past year.

Defusing it peacefully will be a test not just of Chinese behaviour, but also of the ability of China and the United States to accommodate each other’s legitimate interests and maintain the stability on which Asia’s economic dynamism depends.

This month, China and the US traded dueling statements over a buildup of regional tensions. China said that US criticism of its decision to establish a military garrison covering disputed areas of the South China Sea was “a seriously wrong signal.” That followed a tense stare-down this spring and summer involving armed vessels of the Philippines, a US treaty ally, and China over one of the hundreds of reefs, shoals and islands that dot the sea.

Over the past three years, more than 20 incidents — whether ship collisions, arrests of fishermen or the cutting of cables — have taken place between Chinese vessels and those of Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries with claims to the sea’s riches. With increased prospecting and drilling for the area’s abundant oil and natural gas resources, the tension promises to intensify.

China’s expansive and imprecise claims to most of the waters, islands and natural resources of the entire South China Sea — which are echoed by Taiwan, the other “one China” — rest on a mixture of hoary historical accounts and international law.

The other claimants — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — all base their cases on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which China is also a party.

Although the Philippines has suggested putting its competing claims before an international tribunal as allowed for in the convention, China has refused to do so, insisting that any resolution should come through talks between the two nations.

The US, which is pushing for a comprehensive regional solution, has not taken a position on sovereignty issues in the South China Sea, but opposes “the use or threat of force by any claimant” and has declared that “freedom of navigation, and unimpeded lawful commerce in the South China Sea” are “a national interest.”

One of the best things the US could do would be to ratify the Law of the Sea, which safeguards US interests in navigation and commerce and provides a strong multilateral framework for resolving such sovereignty disputes. Some Chinese have been quick to point out the hypocrisy of the US invoking a treaty that it has so far failed to accept. Indeed, if Chairman Mao were alive today, he would doubtless want to shake the hands of the 34 Republican senators who said this summer that they will vote against it. In rejecting multilateralism, they are doing exactly what China wants.

In 2002, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to devise a code of conduct in the South China Sea for peacefully addressing disagreements. Both sides need to take up that cause, which has seen little progress. In addition, the US and China can build up their ability to avert a crisis by, for example, creating a hot line dedicated to managing maritime emergencies. They can also reduce tensions by promoting joint naval exercises in areas such as counterpiracy and disaster relief.

This fall, the US will elect a new president, and China will usher in a new slate of top leaders. In that supercharged political atmosphere, tough talk by either side will play to each side’s worst instincts. To keep things calm, China will need to temper its bluster over the South China Sea and its coercive economic diplomacy, and the US will need to err on the side of even-handedness. While the State Department was right to issue its Aug. 3 statement deploring the rise of tensions, it aggravated the situation by needlessly singling out Chinese actions. In its standoff with China, for example, the Philippines sent a navy warship to detain Chinese fishermen — an escalation that the Chinese have so far avoided by using maritime survey and patrol vessels, rather than the navy.

The “rebalancing” of US naval forces toward Asia is a welcome development. There is a danger, though, that it could end up precipitating the tensions and conflicts that it seeks to deter, especially if it emboldens countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines to overplay their hands. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has so far deftly navigated the South China Sea. Let’s hope she remembers — as the Chinese captain who just ran his frigate aground off the Philippines has learned — that these are perilous waters
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Indonesia Wants Sea Dispute Settled
September 26, 2012, 6:28pm


UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Indonesia is circulating among Southeast Asian nations a draft code of conduct for the South China Sea, hoping for progress before a regional summit in November, its foreign minister said Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has been trying to patch up differences among Association of Southeast Asian Nations members on how to manage the maritime territorial disputes that pit China against several of its neighbors in a region where sea lanes are crucial to world trade, rich fishing grounds and potentially major reserves of natural gas and oil.


He said that the situation in the region -- also rattled by a separate island dispute between China and Japan – is very troubling, but countries including China appreciate they have much to lose from conflict.

"There's a recognition that the countries of the region have prospered and have developed precisely because there's been very benign, stable conditions," Natalegawa told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders. "This is something we don't want to be tinkering with. It could become like a Pandora's box."

<>

Beijing wants to settle conflicting claims with individual nations rather than through a multilateral mechanism that will give the smaller members greater clout in negotiations.

Natelagawa, who met with his Chinese counterpart Tuesday, said there had been some adjustment in China's position.

He said China recognizes "as much as anyone else" the need for diplomatic progress, including implementing a declaration of conduct – the non-binding agreement that Beijing signed up to with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, in 2002. The code of conduct on peacefully resolving the South China Sea sovereignty disputes is intended as the mechanism for putting that declaration into practice.

"What we are looking for is a basic rules-of-the-road type of arrangement for the South China Sea," said Natelagawa, "so that countries behave in a manner that is expected of them in maintaining stability."

In his speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the disputes had been festering for the better part of a century and ASEAN was engaged in "earnest negotiations" for a legally binding code of conduct.

Natelagawa said "we will begin to test the waters" on the draft code in consultations with Southeast Asian governments this week in New York, hoping for progress before a summit of East Asian leaders to be held in Cambodia in November.

He said that was needed so the disputes don't run "out of control."


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Ayoshi
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Aquino alarmed, but PH won’t make provocations in disputed territory (mb.com.ph)
May 28, 2014
Quote:
 
The President said the Philippines would not risk being accused of violating the informal code of conduct among Southeast Asian nations and China in the region.

Under the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) forged in 2002, Aquino said the signatories, including the Philippines, have been called “not to inhabit presently uninhabitable islands” to prevent an escalation of the conflict.

“So pag nagtayo tayo ng facilities doon to inhabit previously uninhabitable (islands) pati tayo ay guilty of violating the agreement that we all agreed to [So if we build facilities to inhabit previously uninhabitable islands, we are also guilty of violating the agreement that we all agreed to],” the President said in a media interview after attending the 116th anniversary of the Philippine Navy at the Naval Station Carlito Cunanan in Palawan.


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dewey
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so its ok if we are to reclaim other islands, esp pag asa?
IDI@T!!! COWARD!!!
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Hong Nam
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Bought by China

China's Self Made Security Disaster in Asia
Graeme Dobell
June 17, 2014

A simple question about what China has been doing to its neighbors keeps recurring: How is that smart?


Consider the responses China has produced or helped validate:

"The principal architect of the success of the US rebalance is Beijing."

1. Japan's asserting its right to a bigger security role in Asia in ways not heard in 70 years - and this is being warmly welcomed by Australia and Southeast Asia.

2. The US President went to Japan in April and stated that the US security treaty with Japan covers the Senkaku Islands. China has pushed so hard over some barren islands occupied by goats that it has produced a specific promise from Obama that the US is ready to go to war with China to ensure that the goats remain Japanese.

3. Traditional fence sitters such as Malaysia and Vietnam are doing exactly what theory says they must do - balance against China by nestling closer to the US. America now proclaims "comprehensive partnerships" with Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur.

4. The rusty US alliance with the Philippines has a fresh coat of paint and Manila is desperate to add muscle to the rebalance.

5. For Asia, the US rebalance is central and vital. No explanation is needed for why it matters and why it must be made to work. The only question is about the level of US commitment.


One of the best descriptions of this dynamic was given by Rodolfo Severino, the former Philippines diplomat and secretary-general of ASEAN. Now head of the ASEAN Studies Centre at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Severino told me:

"Although secretly the US is welcome here, publicly one cannot say that because that would be unfashionable. That's where I think the Chinese are making a mistake. They think that the Philippines and Vietnam are under the thumb of the Americans and it's not so. By doing what they are doing they are giving the US another reason to be around. So I think it's a mistake, but one cannot assume that the Chinese have access to the best minds. Although they are very smart but sometimes they don't think things through."
- Rodolfo Severino



National Interest


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Ayoshi
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Chinese president: flexing military muscles does not reflect strength [xinhuanet] - 6-28-2014
Quote:
 
Xi made the remarks in a keynote speech at a commemoration marking the 60th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

Stressing that security should be universal, Xi said all countries have the right to participate in international and regional security affairs on an equal footing and shoulder the shared responsibility to maintain security both internationally and in various regions.

"We should champion common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, and respect and ensure every country's security," Xi told a 700-strong audience.

"It is unacceptable to have security just for one country or some countries while leaving the rest insecure, and still less should one be allowed to seek the so-called 'absolute security' of itself at the expense of others' security," he said.

He called on countries to step up cooperation at the global and regional level and jointly counter non-traditional security threats which are on the increase, fight against terrorism of all forms and remove the breeding ground of terrorism.

Disputes and differences between countries should be resolved through dialogue, consultation and peaceful means, Xi said, adding that countries should increase mutual trust, and settle disputes and promote security through dialogue.
Edited by Ayoshi, Jun 29 2014, 04:11 AM.
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Hong Nam
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Bought by China

You should feel safer now... :lollol:
Quote:
 

China 'won't seek hegemony' says President Xi
AFP By Kelly Olsen
9 hours ago


President Xi Jinping said on Saturday that China is incapable of "hegemony or militarism", after calling for stronger border defences to avoid a repeat of past humiliations by foreign powers.

"Hegemony or militarism is not in the genes of the Chinese," Xi said in a speech commemorating the six-decade old establishment of a commitment to peaceful coexistence with India and Myanmar.

"China neither interferes in other countries' internal affairs nor imposes its will on others," Xi added. "It will never seek hegemony no matter how strong it may become."



AFP / Yahoo



All you are witnessing now is all an illusion of Chinese expansionism. :lollol:

Edited by Hong Nam, Jun 29 2014, 08:59 AM.

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Bastion
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This is just my observation, but in general, I find all Chinese official statement related to their south china sea claims, always comes with the assumption that the whole world who will who will read it is S T U P I D
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Ayoshi
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^ Yup, there is a reason why international law like UNCLOS have gone out of their way to ignore claims based on history, but focus on de facto ownership and control. History can be made to suit the eye of the beholder.

The People’s Repubic of China is notorious for plagiarized, stolen, and fabricated research and academic fraud. And to simply ignore any other historical records that do not fit their view. And perhaps if the PRC had not just grown too arrogant because of their newfound wealth and push their weight around, We probably woundn't even be discussing this in the first place?

Armed conflict and Chinese agression towards its neighbors like Philippines & Vietnam will always be part of whats expected. IMHO, China is like a mad kid, holding a machine gun in a peaceful nursery.
Edited by Ayoshi, Jun 29 2014, 07:35 PM.
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