While many have put their faith in a Code of Conduct some wonder if China is stalling for time. A real solution may take years, if ever.
The South China Sea is often presented as one of the world’s thorniest territorial disputes. A group of objective, completely disinterested observers, however, would likely find this characterization peculiar. Indeed, to these hypothetical people, it would seem painfully obvious what needed to be done to at least significantly reduce the tensions in the South China Sea. Such a plan would likely start with four simple steps:
Step 1: Put sovereignty issues to one side. These are too complex and too emotive to be solved in the foreseeable future.
Step 2: Establish who claims what. China, for example, is extremely protective of its sovereignty, but it has never made a precise declaration about which areas of the South China Sea it actually owns (vaguely drawing dashes on a map doesn’t count). Claims should be filed with the UN’s International Court of Justice by a certain date – complete with latitude or longitude coordinates – or be considered frivolous by the rest of the world.
Step 3: Use UNCLOS wherever possible. Here’s a happy coincidence: all South China Sea claimants have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. That should make this situation so much easier to handle. For areas that are not contested, UNCLOS clearly lays out the rights of the claimant state and also of non-claimant states in territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. Any problems and the Convention (Article 279 ff.) also has a detailed dispute-resolution mechanism.
Step 4: Neutralize the contested areas. If the disputants really want to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea – and they all say that they do – then they obviously need to draw up a set of rules governing what is and is not allowed in disputed zones. They could call it a Code of Conduct, or some something of the sort. Likely rules would include: the demilitarization of disputed areas; refraining from any provocative rhetoric or action, such as new construction projects on contested islands; no exploration for, or exploitation of, marine resources, unless the claimants agree to do it jointly; and the establishment of a dispute resolution mechanism, probably under the auspices of the ICJ.
Photo Credit: Wikicommons
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Anh
China's claim on South China Sea is baseless. It can't even draw a proper & precise map of its own claim. It basically pulled out a pen and dragged around and said "This is our!". As ridiculous as it sounds, China's pushing it because it can. China is a hungry monster with a huge population that is growing. It will need more and more resource to feed it ever growing population and it will wage wars if necessary. So the lesson to the neighbor countries, build your own nuclear weapons have them point to every China major cities. Only that way you won't be their slaves and you may have a chance keep your land.
Moira Gallaga
This will take decades to resolve. As the article quite accurately points out, the steps to take are quite straightforward if one were objective about it. However, there is no such thing as objectivity when national interests are involved. China will not in any way relinquish whatever advantage and leverage it currently enjoys with the prevailing status quo.