Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century by James Steinberg & Michael E. Ohanlon

Author:James Steinberg & Michael E. Ohanlon [Steinberg, James & Ohanlon, Michael E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, Arms Control, History, United States, Asia, China
ISBN: 9780691159515
Google: oGmYDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 18730639
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2014-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

ISLANDS, SEAS, AND SEA-LANES

The third major category of potential military contingencies involving the United States and China relates to contested areas of sovereignty between China and its neighbors, generally in maritime areas to China’s south and east. There are many sources of conflict: disputed uninhabited islands; resources in the seas and seabeds where claims overlap, including fishing grounds and hydrocarbon deposits; and the open waters of the South China Sea itself, where China has asserted extensive if somewhat ambiguous claims.

These disputed islets and surrounding areas have led to numerous military flare-ups in the recent past. Prime examples include those involving the Scarborough Shoal, contested recently by the Philippines and China; the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, claimed by China and Japan; and the Paracel and Spratly island chains in the South China Sea. (The Paracels are claimed by Vietnam and China; various islands of the Spratlys, further south, are claimed by China as well as Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and/or Vietnam.)46

As its power has increased in recent years, China has become more assertive about its claims to those islands and resources. Chinese ships entered into Japanese territorial waters or otherwise took provocative actions in late 2004, in September 2005, October 2008, November 2008, June 2009, March 2010, April 2010, and September 2010. Japan reported that it had conducted 306 intercepts of Chinese aircraft in 2012 around its islands, up from just two intercepts in 2003.47 A Chinese vessel also cut cables attached to a Vietnamese surveying ship in 2011.48 The pace of activity further accelerated with several incidents between China and the Philippines over the Scarborough and Thomas shoals and with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the last two years.49 Some increase in close passages is perhaps inevitable in light of the improvement of the PLA Navy and thus its greater desire to operate farther from Chinese coastal waters.50 But some of it appears to be deliberate action designed to signal increased Chinese resolve to secure its claims. And in early 2013, there were allegations, denied by China, that a PLA Navy vessel had trained a radar on a Japanese warship.51

Although China’s official sovereignty claims seem limited to the islands (and the associated maritime rights under the UNCLOS or Law of the Sea Treaty that accompany territorial claims), on occasion some have hinted that China actually claims sovereignty over the waters themselves within China’s so-called nine-dash line that encompasses most of the South China Sea. China’s assertive actions have led not only Japan but Vietnam and the Philippines and Singapore to tighten collaboration with the United States on security cooperation activities.

Part of China’s assertiveness in this area may be due to bureaucratic and political confusion, internal rivalry, and muddled lines of authority within Chinese government decision-making circles. Indeed, the situation has been described by the slogan of “nine dragons stirring up the sea” to refer to the multitude of relevant actors within the PRC system.52 But recently the central leadership has tightened its organizational control over the disparate elements, thus suggesting that the actions are reflections of decisions at the highest levels of government.

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