A Change of Guard

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Sunday 5 August 2012

Dragon [China] continues to spit fire far and wide


G Parthasarathy
Author:  G Parthasarathy
The Daily Pioneer

Beijing’s assertiveness is growing not only in the South China Sea, where it has set up a new Prefecture in Sansha in its Southern Hainan Island. A similar behaviour is seen in the East China Sea too.
When Foreign Ministers of the 10 members of Asean commenced their meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on July 9, no one expected to see the differences between the member states on how to deal with China’s blatantly aggressive behaviour on its territorial claims in the South China Sea, leading to the first ever breakdown in such a conference in the past 45 years. There was the usual consensus on such issues as economic integration, political and security cooperation, tensions over the North Korean nuclear programme and the Asean Declaration of South-East Asia as a nuclear weapons free zone. Moreover, when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen spoke at the conference, he urged the need for Asean unity in dealing with the most pressing security issue, evoking serious concern in the Region — the growing stridency and assertiveness of China, on its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Reports from Phnom Penh suggest that after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s speech, the Chinese approached Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong and asserted that China objected to the inclusion of any reference to differences on the South China Sea in the Conference Joint Declaration. As recipients of massive Chinese economic assistance, the Cambodians have generally toed the Chinese line on regional issues and in the past even listened to Chinese advice that efforts should be made to block Indian participation in the East Asia Summit. When the tensions in the South China Sea were under discussion, Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong refused to include any reference to the issue, in the Joint Communiqué of the conference. With Chinese maritime vessels positioned astride the Scarborough Shoal located barely 100 km from its soil, 1,800 km away from mainland China, and China threatening to send its vessels with naval escorts to areas it claimed, the Philippines vehemently objected to the stand of Cambodia. Other countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei, facing similar Chinese claims, were taken aback. When the Cambodians refused to budge, the Philippines Foreign Minister packed his bags and headed home.
It took some skilful diplomacy by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa to salvage the situation. He worked with his colleagues to get hosts Cambodia to agree to a six-point declaration which called for “full respect for the universally recognised principles of international law including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”. Within hours of issue of this Declaration of Principles by Asean, China re-asserted its sovereignty over the entire South China Sea and all the Islands in the region. China, of course, has a unique and self-serving interpretation of the UNCLOS. It holds that the UNCLOS is “not an international treaty that settles disputes between sovereign states, nor can it be used as a reference for settling such disputes”. States having differences on maritime boundaries across the world, however, abide by the principles enunciated in the UNCLOS for determining maritime boundaries, where there are differences.
China’s aggressive diplomacy in Phnom Penh has been accompanied by assertive military posturing, across its maritime boundaries, in both the South China and the East China Seas. On June 28, China began combat patrols in waters around the disputed islands in the South China Sea. The move was described by its Defence Ministry as undertaken to protect “national sovereignty” in its territorial waters. It was said to manifest its “determination” to “defend our territorial waters” and to “protect our maritime rights.”  The China National Offshore Oil Company announced that nine new offshore blocks in the South China Sea, all in disputed waters with Vietnam, were open for oil exploration. This, after having warned India not to explore in blocks allocated to it by Vietnam in an area it had been involved in exploration activity since 1988. The disputed blocks cover an area of 1,60,000 sq km, with some blocks located barely 80 miles from Vietnam’s coast and well within Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Vietnamese academics have recently drawn attention to Chinese maps and documents between the 18th and early 20th century that clearly show that China’s historical claims to sovereignty have never extended beyond its Hainan Island and did not include the Paracel and Spratly Islands, leave alone the entire South China Sea.
China’s assertiveness is growing not only in the South China Sea, where it has set up a new Prefecture in Sansha in its Southern Hainan Island. Sansha has been designated as the centre for enforcing Chinese claims across the South China Sea and empowered to administer some 200 offshore Islets. Similar assertiveness has characterised Chinese behaviour in the East China Sea also, on its territorial claims on the Senkaku Islands. China appears confident that with its growing military strength and economic influence, it can create splits in Asean and prevent the emergence of a unified Asean approach to deal with its territorial ambitions. China is today the bloc’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade touching $300 billion in 2011 (against an expected $80 billion in bilateral trade between India and Asean in 2012). China has overtaken Japan as the largest contributor of economic assistance to Asea. Chinese FDI has grown substantially in Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. With Myanmar, which like Cambodia, is heavily dependent on Chinese assistance and investment, soon set to assume chairmanship of Asean, China would seek to ensure that Asean cannot mount a serious diplomatic challenge to its territorial ambitions in the near future.
Chinese domination of the sea lanes of the Indian and the Pacific Oceans would be a matter of concern to India, as around 50 per cent of India’s foreign trade moves across the South China Sea. China is also poised to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean. If China achieves its territorial ambitions in the South and the East China Seas through coercive diplomacy, it could well be tempted to adopt a similar approach on its growing territorial claims on India. It is, imperative for India to work with other partners in the East Asia Summit like the US, Russia and Japan to facilitate the emergence of a cohesive Asean strategy to counter Chinese territorial ambitions. India should also not back off from its commitments made to Vietnam on offshore oil and gas exploration. Moreover, a much greater focus is required in accelerating the growth of defence, economic and investment ties with Asean countries, with particular focus on Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a real bisas statement by the wriiter. The writer states that "Vietnamese academics have recently drawn attention to Chinese maps and documents between the 18th and early 20th century that clearly show that China historical claims to sovereignty have never extended beyond its Hainan Island and did not include the Paracel and Spratly Islands, leave alone the entire South China Sea."
Accoring to history, between the 11th and early 16th century, the entire Vietnam was belonging to Cambodia, the Khmer Empire. I can't see how Veitnam can claim the Paracel island today. During this period in history, Vietnamese people are Chinese where as their writing language base on Chinese characters.
The oldest civilizations in East Asia are the Khmer and the Chinese (Han). There was no such thing as Vietnam. the writer needs to understand that not just the Paracel island is claimed by Veitname, but also several islands in a very close praximate to Cambodia coast are being encroached by Vietnamese. Perhaps, the Cambodia feels uneasy with Vietnam which leads them to support China stand against Vietnam and perhaps economic assistant from China did very little with the decision it makes, and perhaps it is not the only factor that Cambodia has in mind.

Anonymous said...

Right,Yieknam stole Champa's land [Muslim's land] in the North/central Srok Yuon.The south was belong to Khmer,the fucking's France ceded to Yuon during 1946 June the 4th,without any Khmer consent.

Khmer lost more land and islands more than any others countries in Asia to Yuon.I wish China will hit Yuon with its big stick,takes all the islands that China claimed that belong to her.

Kw

Anonymous said...

2:59 PM

To be fair and balanced, you have to read the real Vietnam's history. Chinese domination of Vietnam ended 938 AD. They got their independence from 939 AD until French colonization. During French colonization the Administrative power was in Hanoi. All three Indochinese countries and Islands were basically run with Vietnamese officials for France. Many many maps from independent foreign countries show those islands drawn to Vietnam's territory. Chinese claim to the islands only started 1909. Take it to the Hague and see if China is right or wrong. No one can take anything from China if it is right, right? Why be afraid?

Vietnam's history timeline -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vietnam

Anonymous said...

A maked up history timeline.

Anonymous said...

Hague is for little countries that crying out for help such as Cambodia and Vietnam, but it's not for China.

Anonymous said...

I just want to see Vietnam suffering like Cambodia. If the Vietnamese not able to understand other people feeling, how can they expect other to understand them. Here is what it looks like: The Mega fish is eating the big fish and the big fish is eating the little fish. This is what happening. Live with pal and stop cry. What is going around will come around. There is no sympathy from me.

Anonymous said...

In the late 80th the Chinese war ships destoyed Vietnam ships and killed many Vietnamese troops. I was so happy about that. I just can't wait to more of that happen to Vietnam. I;m going to throw a party next time, if it happened. LONG LIVE CHINA

Anonymous said...

If China goes to war with Vietnam, I doubt that Cambodia and Lao will side with Vietnam. Cambodia and Lao will throw a party.