Line in the Waters: The South China Sea Dispute and its Implications for Asia

Line in the

waters

The South China Sea

Dispute and its

Implications for Asia

Edited by

Abhijit Singh

Line in the

waters

The South China Sea

Dispute and its

Implications for Asia

Edited by

Abhijit Singh

© 2017 Observer Research Foundation

Line in the Waters: The South China Sea Dispute and its Implications for Asia

ISBN: 978-81-86818-27-5

Cover image:

jiang X/China Navy aircraft carrier battle group/Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Designer:

Simi Jaison Designs

Printer:

Mohit Enterprises, New Delhi

Arbitration on the South China Sea - Implications for Maritime-Asia ......................................... 2

Abhijit Singh

Freedom of Navigation - A Critical Security Imperative .............................................................. 13

Jeff M. Smith

The Sino-US Security Dilemma - The Root Cause and Way Out ................................................ 22

Teng Jianqun

Singapore’s Security Imperatives.................................................................................................. 30

Koh Swee Lean Collin

Indonesia’s South China Sea Problem.......................................................................................... 38

Ristian Supriyanto

Vietnam’s Regional Security Challenges....................................................................................... 47

Ha Anh Tuan

Duterte’s Geopolitical Game-play................................................................................................ 55

Richard Javad Heydarian

A Japan-India Partnership in Maritime-Asia ................................................................................ 64

Satoru Nagao

Contents

Courtesy of Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

https://amti.csis.org/atlas/

2

Arbitration on the South China Sea

– Implications for Maritime-Asia

I

n 2016, a series of developments in maritime-Asia drew international attention to the territorial

disputes in the South China Sea, none more so than the Philippines vs. China Arbitration over

maritime rights and jurisdiction in the littoral seas. On July 12, 2016, a tribunal at the Permanent

Court of Arbitration (PCA) at Hague passed a landmark on the matter, ruling that Beijing’s claims of

historic rights within the nine-dash line are without legal basis. It further concluded that Beijing’s activities

within the Philippines’ two-hundred-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), such as illegal fishing

and environmentally damaging artificial island constructions, constituted and infringement of Manila’s

sovereign rights.

In many ways, China had only itself to blame for the debacle. Beijing’s first reaction to the Philippines’

legal appeal had been to ignore the matter altogether – as if not acknowledging the case would effectively

delegitimise it. Given the high level of international interest in the affair, however, it was forced to make

a course correction, issuing a position paper in December 2014 clarifying its official stance on the issue.1

Unfortunately for Beijing, its contention that Manila had violated the United Nations Convention of the

Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) by filing a petition on a matter of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘territorial jurisdiction’

failed to convince judges at the PCA, who ruled comprehensively in favour of the Philippines.2

Notwithstanding the maritime legalese surrounding the case, the technical nuances of the points raised

reveal an underlying narrative. It is important to note that when Manila filed proceedings under Annex

VII of the UNCLOS in July 2013, it was smart enough to invoke only those provisions that allow for

compulsory arbitration. Fully aware that territorial disputes are beyond the remit of UNCLOS, the

Abhijit Singh

Abhijit Singh is Senior Fellow and Head of Maritime Policy Initiative at the Observer Research

Foundation (ORF) in New Delhi. A former Indian naval officer, he has edited two books on

maritime security - Indian Ocean Challenges: a Quest for Cooperative Solutions (2013) and

Geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific (2014), and written extensively on India’s growing maritime

reach, security of sea-lines of communication, Indian Ocean governance issues and maritime

infrastructure in the Asian littorals.