ASEAN pushes back: The grouping appears to have had enough of China’s bullying in South China Sea

TIN LIÊN QUAN
	US rejects China’s unlawful sovereign claims in East Sea
	China contemplating ADIZ in South China Sea

In a statement issued by Vietnam – the current ASEAN chair – the 10-nation bloc affirmed that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) should be the basis of sovereign rights and entitlements in the South China Sea. UNCLOS defines the rights of nations over oceans and demarcates exclusive economic zones where coastal states have the right to exclusively tap fishery and fuel resources. However, in the South China Sea, China’s expansive claims as per its so-called nine-dash line historical cartography overrides the claims of most of the other littoral states. What’s more, China in recent years has been aggressively staking its claims in the South China Sea waters and building artificial islands and putting down serious military infrastructure on them.

Further, it has been harassing legitimate commercial operations within the exclusive economic zones of other regional states. It has been doing this by sending out survey vessels and fishing boats backed by coast guard ships into the territorial waters and exclusive economic zones of ASEAN members. But this year, there has been a further rise in the level of China’s aggression. Chinese coasat guards and fishing boats even began harassing Indonesia – which doesn’t have any claims in the South China Sea – and started trawling Indonesia’s Natuna sea. Then in April, a Chinese coast guard vessel sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands, threating the lives of eight fishermen. Recently, China deployed its vessels to hinder Malaysian oil exploration activities in Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone near Borneo island.

All of these highlight China’s bullying tactics in the South China Sea. It doesn’t care that its so-called nine-dash line has no legal validity having been rejected by the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in 2016. It will continue to forcibly acquire islands in the contested waters, build artificial ones, disregard the rights of other claimants and poach the maritime resources of ASEAN members. It is plain and simple – China wants to dominate the South China Sea because it sees this as key to emerging as the veritable power centre in East Asia. This is China’s front yard and Beijing wants everyone to know it is the boss here.

And it is not a new thing. China has been asserting its claims in the South China Sea for decades and really stepped it up in the 1970s when it defeated the erstwhile South Vietnam forces to practically capture all of the Paracel Islands. But in recent years under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing has really strived to stamp its authority in the area. True, there are disputes over claims between the Asean members themselves. But the difference between their claims and China’s is that Beijing sees the South China Sea dispute as a zero-sum game. Whereas, ASEAN members, at least today, are more willing to resolve their differences through negotiations or manage them through a rules-based order. In fact, China’s aggression actually seems to be forging ASEAN unity over the South China Sea, though there is still some way to go before this solidifies.

But the question that Beijing needs to ask itself is that is its tactics really working out in its favour for the long term. The US is already militarily pivoting to Asia, ASEAN is showing signs of greater resolve against China, and Beijing is coming across as an aggressive, expansionist, predatory power. That’s not how countries become great. Perhaps Xi thinks that by showing quick gains in the South China Sea, he can fend off internal domestic criticism of his handling of Covid-19 and the attendant slowing Chinese economy. That he can keep alive the narrative of making China a great socialist power and further consolidate his hold over party and state. But nobody outside China today is buying the Chinese dream nor does anyone want this Chinese regime to be a leader in any forum. China’s wolf warrior diplomacy is clearly backfiring and losing Beijing goodwill in the international community. If things continue on this track, Xi may end up extending the Chinese Communist Party’s rule in China, but lose China’s standing among the comity of nations.

* Author is a Delhi-based journalist working for the Edit Page of The Times of India.

(The views expressed are personal)

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