ASEAN-China Relations: Realities and Prospects

23. The South China Sea Disputes after the 2002 Declaration: Beyond Confidence-Building

344 Aileen S.P. Baviera 23 The South China Sea Disputes after the 2002 Declaration: Beyond Confidence-Building Aileen S.P. Baviera BACKGROUND TO THE CLAIMS The South China Sea (SCS) disputes refer to competing territorial and jurisdictional claims over four groups of islands, reefs, and atolls (Paracels, Spratlys, Macclesfield Bank, and Pratas), along with their surrounding waters, lying strategically between China and Southeast Asia. The claimants include China and Taiwan who are believed to claim the entire South China Sea area, and Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei whose claims are more limited to certain features and areas. The SCS is strategically important for various reasons, among them the fact that critical sea-lanes traverse the waters, linking northeast Asia and the western Pacific to the Indian Ocean and the Middle East. More than half the world’s shipping tonnage reportedly sails through the South China Sea each year, including more than 80 per cent of the oil destined for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.1 The disputes, particularly those over the Spratly Islands, are considered one of the most complex territorial disputes because there are at least three, but potentially as many as six, claimants to different parts of the area, and not 23 ASEAN-China Relations Ch 23 5/8/05, 9:07 AM 344 The South China Sea Disputes after the 2002 Declaration 345 all the claimants have clearly delineated their claims nor fully articulated their grounds for such. Moreover, there is a range of interests at stake for the different parties, including the potential for oil and natural gas deposits in the seabed, access to rich fishing grounds, strategic control of the sealanes, security from external threats, and even protection of the immediate marine environment.The patterns of occupation and military presence in the disputed areas — with Vietnam now occupying the largest number of features in the Spratlys at more than 22, China 14, the Philippines 11, Malaysia 10, Taiwan 1 (the largest feature — Itu Aba), and Brunei none2 — make it nearly impossible to seek a solution based on physical division of the multiple claim areas. Except for a few islands which have been converted into civilian facilities by Taiwan and Malaysia, the rest are occupied by military troops. Armed clashes took place between China and Vietnam in the Paracels in 1974 and in the Spratlys in 1988. Claimant states have engaged in unilateral assertions of sovereignty over their claimed areas, such as building or upgrading of structures and facilities (whether military or civilian in nature), conducting naval and air patrols, undertaking oil exploration and fishery activities under state protection, enacting national legislation on the use of the seas in total disregard of other claims, and others. These have resulted in episodes of high tension among the states bordering the South China Sea, although no significant armed conflict has taken place since 1988. Larger events in the East Asian region during the post-Cold War period contributed to the increasing importance of the South China Sea, raising the stakes for those involved. These include the 1994 entry into force of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which hastened competition for extended jurisdictions over ocean areas; the heightening contest for hydrocarbon and fisheries resources; the rapid growth of intraregional trade and thus reliance on shipping; as well as the rise of China as a regional power. The reduction in the U.S. military presence in the region has also added an element of uncertainty to the regional security environment. Meanwhile, Vietnam joined ASEAN, with the perhaps unintended result that the South China Sea disputes began to be thought of and increasingly approached as a problem between China (both Beijing and Taipei, assuming they have a common claim) and ASEAN. Various confidence-building initiatives have been undertaken by the claimants to try to manage the rising tensions. In 1992, ASEAN enunciated the “Manila Declaration on the South China Sea”, calling for restraint and urging cooperation among the various claimants. At the bilateral level, high23 ASEAN-China Relations Ch 23 5/8/05, 9:07 AM 345 346 Aileen S.P. Baviera level exchanges between military and civilian officials of various countries took place, and agreements upholding the need for peaceful resolution were concluded — such as the China-Vietnam delimitation of the Tonkin Gulf and fisheries cooperation agreements in 2000, and the 1995 PhilippinesChina and 1996 Philippines-Vietnam agreements on “principles for...