The Dispute Over The South China Sea Essay

The disputes of SCS (South China’s Sea) are a perpetual issue on the conflicting licit claim for territorial land and who has the authority to sovereign it. The dispute arises, since SCS contains precious natural resources, which the surrounding nations wish the gain, as it would boost their economy, as a liberalist would think. However, realistically these resource would provide funding for more military power, as countries are looking to expand their horizons across the sea.This ‘Great Debate’ impacts the world as there is a theoretical aspect of what would occur if a certain nation was given sovereign over the territory. Liberalism allows us to understand that nations have different intentions and one doesn’t know what the other desirers. While realism allows us to understand the true nature of this dispute over power, since the territory allows nations to create air carrier, therefore vastly improving and expand their military.

Realism is one of the most dominant international relations theories in the academic world. But within Realism, Realists are split on a number of issues. A perfect example of which being the rise of China. Over the past 30 years China has increased not only in population and power, but has also achieved one of the strongest economies in the world. The rise of China is seen as problematic by many realists. Since the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, the US has enjoyed a position of hegemony in the unipolar power structure of the world. Many fear that the rise of China could upset the current balance of power. One such individual is a prominent realist scholar, John Mearsheimer. He believes that war with China is inevitable and “calls for the US to do whatever it can to slow China’s rise.” Another political theorist Jonathan Kirshner wrote this paper to counter many of Mearsheimer’s claims, stating that Mearsheimer’s offensive realism “is wrong, and dangerous”. Kirshner suggests that instead of using offensive realism we should look instead to the theories roots in classical realism to analyse the rise of China.

The current Status Quo is complete US political and military domination in the South-China Sea, United States dominated and dictated trade deals, and unipolarity of hegemonic power (Beckley 2011) All of which, if China desires to grow its power, must challenge.

It is no longer appropriate to say, “China is quickly emerging as a global superpower.” The fact is China is just that. Realizing this the United States of America has attempted to once again turn its focus eastward. Continuing problems at home and in the Middle East however have made doing so difficult. Additionally more and more frequently attempts at influencing the ongoing narrative in the Asia- Pacific region have been rebuffed. Even allies have found strength in the emergence of a system that fails to conform to previously prescribed methods and ideals. This leads to a fundamental question America must answer quickly. Has the growing hypocrisy of idealistic political rhetoric versus actual foreign policy finally undermined American credibility with developing nations, or for the purposes of this paper more specifically China? The answer is yes.

And with this strong role China has been assuming, so has it been getting stronger by building military equipment competitive with those of the U.S. and drawing narrower a military gap it once possessed when compared to America’s armed forces. Furthermore, China has “displaced the United States as the world’s leading manufacturing nation” in 2010 (US Foreign Policy, pg. 414). Not a surprise since a majority of products purchased in the U.S. carry a label stating, “Made in China.” And predictions hold China as the world’s largest economy by year 2041 (US Foreign Policy, pg. 415). Thus, the fact that China has become an emergence matters. Since the dismantled of the Soviet Union, the U.S. was not challenged, when it came to power by any other competitor, however now, the U.S. dominance in international politics has to deal with a China that has the capabilities to lead the world’s economy.

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

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.

Theories are used in many fields of science, but in no field are they more prevalent than Political Science. These theories are often used and researched upon to try and attempt to discern how states interact with one another. Offensive Realism, a new branch of realist political theory, is brought forth in John Mearsheimer’s book, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. This theory focuses on the key aspects of realism, while adding a twist as to why war is an option. In his book, Mearsheimer explains the history of great powers, and predicts that China, the world’s current rising great power, will not gain hegemony in Asia peacefully. With the rise of China, he asserts the US will form coalitions with multiple states throughout Asia, to contain their growing power. This rise in power, and subsequent reactions by the US, are based on his theory Offensive Realism, which is used to predict China’s future actions. The rise of powers, and the reactions of other powers, is historically analyzed, beginning in the late 18th century, all the way to modern times. These analyzes each attempt to support his overall claim that China will rise through non-peaceful means, and shows significant support with historical examples. While the theory often meets an exception when the usual non-European power, Japan, is mentioned, Mearsheimer’s theory introduces a solid new aspect to the realm of Political Science, and presents enough evidence and information to be considered integral to

Snyder claims that realism failed to predict the Cold War. Given this, Mearsheimer states “China cannot rise peacefully.” Since realists describe the world as a self-help system, according to Posen, every country “must look to its own interests relative to those of others” and because “security is the preeminent issue in an anarchic world, the distribution of capabilities to attack and defend should matter.” Thus, because China’s strive for regional hegemony inevitably threatens the power dynamic of the global system, the U.S. will, according to Mearsheimer, take an offensive realist approach that will eventually lead to war. In addition, as seen in post-Cold War, economic stability greatly determines the distribution of power. Friedberg notes, that the projected “speed and magnitude of China’s growth in recent decades appears to be unprecedented” and as early as 2015, “China’s economy could overtake that of the United States.” Although the U.S. faces an unprecedented challenge to economic power, according to Ikenberry, China has signaled cooperation by “redoubling its participation in existing institutions, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit or working with the other great powers in the region to build new ones.” Nevertheless, following the actions of the U.S. post WWII, China strategically makes “itself more predictable and approachable” to reduce “the incentives for other

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

The ongoing dispute in the South China Sea between the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the various littoral states (Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines) has been a topic of intense debate and observation in the international community. While each of the littoral states attempts to enforce and control the 200 nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) allotted to them by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the PRC is claiming much of the South China Sea for itself—roughly 90 percent—on the basis of a Kuomintang map from 1947 (Fensom, 2016). This “nine-dash line” extends well beyond the 200-nm limit and into the EEZ’s of the respective littoral states. These claims include the Paracel Islands, which the PRC clashed with Vietnam over in the 1970s; Scarborough Shoal, a coral atoll and lagoon west of the Philippines; and the Spratly Islands, a large collection of small, uninhabited islands, reefs, and sandbars on the southern edge of the South China Sea. Additionally, the PRC claims EEZs on its occupied features, despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s (PCA) ruling that all the Spratly Island features are “rocks” and therefore are not entitled to EEZs (Permanent Court of Arbitration, 2016). Chinese control of these features would allow them to effectively control the entire South China Sea. A third of all global maritime trade—over 5 trillion dollars annually—passes through this region, along with over 60% of Japan’s

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.

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. Hence,

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

During his keynote address at the opening of the 30th Asia-Pacific roundtable, the Malaysian Prime Minister said, “We will continue to rely on diplomacy and dialogue to peacefully resolve difference and disputes. We will do so in accordance with and in adherence to the norms, customs, and principles of international law" (Cheng, 2016). Disputes in the SCS have been a long-standing issue amongst claimants such as Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Republic of China. Apart from territorial disputes, the SCS holds a critical geostrategic