ANKARA
One of the world’s most hotly contested territorial claim is back in the spotlight, but just for a very different reason.
Reel, not real, life has propelled the South China Sea dispute into global headlines.
Earlier this month, Vietnam banned the upcoming “Barbie” movie over a scene featuring a map that depicts the contested region.
The Philippines will allow the film to be screened, but wants the map – which shows disputed Chinese territorial claims, known as the “nine-dash line” – to be blurred.
The Barbie ban is the latest in a series of incidents involving the line that China uses to assert its territorial claims. In 2019, the animated film Abominable was also banned in Vietnam for showing the line.
This is yet another example of the tensions that exist in the South China Sea, which have resulted in several confrontations between China and the US.
The world’s two largest economies have recently been at a point described by China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang as “the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations.”
Qin conveyed this directly to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month during marathon seven-hour talks in Beijing, a grim assessment rooted in several issues, including encounters in the South China Sea in the recent past.
On June 3, a Chinese vessel had a close encounter with an American warship in the area, forcing the US Navy destroyer to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision.
Just three days earlier, a Chinese fighter jet had crossed the path of an American reconnaissance plane.
The hostility also spilled over to an important regional event, the Shangri-La Dialogue, where tensions between the US and China took center stage as their respective defense chiefs both used the forum to trade barbs and take veiled digs at each other.
What is the dispute?
The South China Sea is a vital waterway for international trade and commerce, besides harboring an estimated $2 trillion worth of oil and gas reserves. Approximately $3.3 trillion worth of goods moved through the sea in 2022, accounting for a third of global maritime trade.
The most sweeping territorial claim here is made by China through its nine-dash line, which covers nearly 80% of the sea and overlaps with exclusive economic zone (EEZ) claims of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and the island nation of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own “breakaway province.”
Other boundary disputes involve a different group of countries.
For example, islands, reefs, banks, and shoals in the South China Sea, including the Paracel Islands, Pratas Island and the Vereker Banks, are contested between China and Vietnam, with other parts of the area disputed between Malaysia and the Philippines.
The Hague ruling
The territorial claims remain highly contested, despite repeated calls for a negotiated settlement and avoiding breaches of sovereignty.
In 2016, however, China was dealt a blow when the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international tribunal based in The Hague, ruled that its nine-dash line claim has no legal basis under international law.
It also said that China has violated the sovereign rights of the Philippines, which had filed the case.
This was the first time an international tribunal had ruled on the legality of China’s claims, and the verdict had potential implications for other countries involved in the disputes.
ASEAN-China accord
A significant step toward resolving the South China Sea disputes was the signing of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in 2002, a non-binding agreement that outlines principles for the peaceful resolution of disputes in the region.
The agreement was signed between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc, which includes the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.
The DOC calls for the parties to refrain from threatening or using force, to resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and consultation, and to respect freedom of navigation and overflight.
At a summit in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta this Thursday, China, and ASEAN agreed to “speed up” negotiations on the code of conduct to prevent conflict in the disputed waters.
Law of the sea
All states bordering the South China Sea are parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which establishes a legal framework to govern all uses of the world’s oceans.
Broadly, the convention guarantees the freedom of navigation and overflight for all ships and aircraft on the high seas and in EEZs.
This means that no state can interfere with the passage of ships or aircraft through these areas, except in very limited circumstances.
The right of “innocent passage” stipulated in the convention allows for the passage of ships without stopping, anchoring, or engaging in any activities that are prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of the coastal state.
The right of “transit passage,” which is broader than the other one, allows ships and aircraft to pass through straits without stopping, anchoring, or engaging in any activities that are not incidental to their normal modes of continuous and expeditious transit.
The convention states that ships and aircraft exercising the right of navigation or overflight must comply with the relevant international regulations and standards designed to ensure the safety of navigation, the protection of the marine environment, and the prevention of pollution.
However, different interpretations of UNCLOS lie at the heart of tensions between China, the US, and some other countries, particularly over the activities of US military vessels and planes in and over the South China Sea and other maritime areas off China’s coast.
The US, which is not a party to the UN convention, and most other countries interpret the UN laws as giving coastal states the right to regulate economic activities within their territorial seas and EEZs, but not the right to regulate navigation and overflight through the EEZs, including by military ships and aircraft.
China and some others contend that UNCLOS allows them to regulate both economic activity and foreign militaries’ navigation and overflight through their EEZs.
Chinese strategy experts have said that although foreign ships enjoy the right of innocent passage in the territorial sea, Article 25 of the convention provides that the coastal state may take necessary steps to prevent passage that is not innocent.
Despite Chinese objections, the US has conducted Freedom of Navigation Operations, while its air force has flown bomber missions over the region.
The South China Sea issue is likely to simmer for long because these disputes are increasingly transforming into a larger geopolitical game – beyond territorial disputes and varying interpretations of navigation laws – in which the US and its allies are closing ranks to challenge China’s regional dominance.
