South China Sea

Overview

The South China Sea is a critical commercial gateway for a meaning dowry of the world ’ south merchant ship, and therefore is an authoritative economic and strategic sub-region of the Indo-Pacific. It is besides the site of respective complex territorial disputes that have been the lawsuit of conflict and tension within the region and throughout the Indo-Pacific .

Geography

geographically, the South China Sea plays a significant character in the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. The South China Sea is bordered by Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Their holocene economic growth has contributed to a big dowry of the earth ’ s commercial merchant shipping passing through these waters. Japan and South Korea trust heavily on the South China Sea for their supply of fuels and bleak materials and as an export road, although the handiness of diversionary ocean lanes bypassing the South China Sea provides non-littoral states with some flexibility in this gaze. The South China Sea besides contains full-bodied, though unregulated and over-exploited fish grounds and is reported to hold significant reserves of undiscovered vegetable oil and accelerator, which is an worsen factor in maritime and territorial disputes. The major island and reef formations in the South China Sea are the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, Pratas, the Natuna Islands and Scarborough Shoal .

Territorial Disputes

Competing claims of territorial sovereignty over islands and smaller features in the South China Sea have been a longstanding source of tension and distrust in the region. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ( UNCLOS ), which was concluded in 1982 and came into coerce in 1994, established a legal framework intended to balance the economic and security interests of coastal states with those of seafaring nations. UNCLOS enshrines the exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ ), a 200 nautical mile sphere that extends sole exploitation rights to coastal nations over marine resources. however, the EEZ was never intended to serve as a security zone, and UNCLOS besides guarantees varied passage rights for naval vessels and military aircraft .

While UNCLOS has been signed and ratified by about all the coastal countries in the South China Sea, its interpretation is hush heatedly disputed. furthermore, legal and territorial disputes persist, chiefly over the Spratly and Paracel Islands a well as Scarborough Shoal, the scene of ongoing tensions between China and the Philippines. In terms of the Spratlys, more than 60 geographic features are reportedly occupied by claimants, which consist of Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Malaysia. The Paracel Islands are the discipline of overlapping claims by China, Vietnam and Taiwan. China makes the largest title in the South China Sea, within a ‘ dash-line ’ map published by the Kuomintang Government in 1947. The ambiguous nine or ten ‘ dart note ’, which China asserts is based on evidence of diachronic custom, is disputed by early South China Sea territorial claimants and lacks a legal initiation under UNCLOS .

Australia and the South China Sea

Australia has significant interests in the South China Sea, both economically, in terms of freedom of craft and navigation, and geopolitically, as the United States is invested in upholding the rules-based order in the region. Australia has been conducting its own airborne surveillance operations in the South China Sea and indian Ocean, called Operation Gateway, since 1980. These patrols are conducted by P-3 Orion nautical aircraft and some of them have been verbally challenged by China. While Australia has not conducted a surface FONOP operation alike to those of the US Navy, it regularly conducts naval presence patrols, exercises and port calls throughout the region. As Washington ’ mho closest ally in the area, Australia may come under growing atmospheric pressure from the United States to make its presence feel in the South China Sea beyond statements of diplomatic support for exemption of navigation .

What the Lowy Institute does

The Lowy Institute has a firm phonograph record of analysis, comment and inquiry on issues pertaining to the South China Sea, particularly concerning territorial disputes and nautical security. This research has largely been conducted through both the International Security and East Asia Programs.