Mark Valencia, Ji Guoxing: AVOIDING SOUTH CHINA SEA'S ROUGH WATERS
Date: 09-03-2001
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AVOIDING SOUTH CHINA SEA'S ROUGH WATERS
***U.S. and Chinese military officials will meet Sept. 13-14 on Guam to discuss ways to avoid maritime incidents like the recent collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese jet.
***New East-West Center publication: "Rough Waters in the South China Sea: Navigation Issues and Confidence-Building Measures," by Ji Guoxing, director of the Institute of International Strategy Studies, Modern Management Center, in Shanghai. 8 pages.
PDF file available Sept. 6. Contact
ewcbooks@eastwestcenter.org
HONOLULU (Sept. 3) -- In a time of shrinking "high seas," a navigational code of conduct in exclusive economic zones must be developed to avoid future U.S.-China conflicts in the South China Sea, says a Chinese specialist on international strategy.
The April 1 collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter 70 nautical miles off the coast of Hainan brought dramatic attention to an ongoing dispute between the United States and China: the rules governing navigation in the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of the South China Sea. The United States says its plane was flying over international waters and had freedom of navigation. China says it was flying in China's EEZ and was subject to Chinese laws.
Conflicts over freedom of navigation in EEZs are increasing in the South China Sea, according to a new East-West Center publication, "Rough Waters in the South China Sea: Navigation Issues and Confidence-Building Measures," by Ji Guoxing, director of the Institute of International Strategy Studies, Modern Management Center, in Shanghai.
"We need to find some measure to work out the rules of navigation in the EEZs, a navigational code of conduct," the author said in a recent interview at the East-West Center. "This can serve as a breakthrough, a precedent.
"A lot of the high seas has been substantially reduced, and maritime powers simply cannot fly over these seas as before." He referred to agreements worked out by the United States and former Soviet Union that proved effective and that could stand as examples. The recent spy-plane incident "shows the urgency for both (U.S. and Chinese) sides to work out an arrangement."
The EEZs, which extend 200 nautical miles into the sea from coastal nations' baselines, were created by the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention to try to accommodate coastal states' interests in controlling offshore resources and the maritime powers' interests in maintaining freedom of navigation. But ambiguities in the Convention's language, combined with coastal states' proliferating (and often overlapping) EEZ claims, have created a tinderbox.
"The law itself is ambiguous. There are different interpretations, definitions and applications. Military activities in the EEZs are not clearly stated, making the whole thing confusing," Ji Guoxing said.
The situation will remain volatile as long as policymakers stay focused on jurisdictional disputes, he writes. A multilateral confidence-building arrangement focused on the practical issues of navigation as opposed to territorial issues would be ideal, but a regional agreement is most likely to be achieved in increments, with bilateral agreements paving the way, he writes. Both air and sea activities in the EEZs need to be regulated.
First steps were taken in January 1998 when China and the United States entered into a Military Maritime Consultative Agreement. The agreement has been shelved by the Bush administration. It could again serve as a first step in confidence-building measures to avoid U.S.-China conflicts, he writes, and eventually provide a model for the region.
Ji Guoxing was a visiting fellow at the East-West Center over the summer. He can be reached by email at
Gxji@yahoo.com or
gx_ji@hotmail.com
Mark Valencia is an East-West Center specialist on maritime policy and international relations in Asia. He can be reached at (808) 944-7247 or
valencim@EastWestCenter.org