The Paracel Islands And U S Interests And Approaches In The South China Sea

The Paracel Islands and South China Sea disputes require better understanding by U.S. policymakers in order to address the regions challenges. To attain that needed understanding, legal aspects of customary and modern laws are explored in this monograph to analyze the differences between competing maritime and territorial claims, and why and how China and Vietnam stake rival claims or maritime legal rights. Throughout, U.S. policies are examined through U.S. conflicted interests in the region. Recommendations for how the United States should engage these issues, a more appropriate task than trying to solve the disputes outright, are then offered.

The region around the Paracel Islands and the South China Sea is important to the economies of the surrounding states in terms of the fish resources and potential for energy reserves, which result in diplo¬matic and physical clashes. The large flow of maritime commerce around the Paracel Islands is also crucial to the economic well-being of the region and the world, and occupation of the islands dictates control of the surrounding sea's maritime traffic, security, and economic exploitation. Although China currently occupies all of the Paracels, they are also vigorously claimed by Vietnam.The use of customary law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in estab¬lishing claims to the Paracels and surrounding waters helps explain the perspectives of the disputants. Their legal positions are especially important for Ameri¬can policymakers as they inform possible solutions and suggest how to contribute to peace and prosper¬ity in the region. Three key legal questions must be answered to help sort the disputes: sovereignty over the islets, the nature of a claimed land feature, and the delimitation of maritime jurisdiction. Sovereignty is claimed through customary law, with China and Viet¬nam using historic doctrine to claim the entire South China Sea, while both have also used the doctrine of occupation, which now works to the advantage of China.Once sovereignty and feature type are deter¬mined, zones of authority may be established by the occupying state depending on the distance from its established shore baseline. Internal, archipelagic, and historic waters are maritime variations of near full sovereign control, which could be disruptive to economic and navigation activities if awarded to Viet¬nam or China, who make such claims. Islands above the high tide mark establish territorial waters and a contiguous zone, which would carve out 24 nautical mile (nm) zones around the Paracels but should allow innocent passage. The length of the 200-nm exclusive economic zones (EEZ) allows much potential overlap among land masses and islands in the semi-enclosed South China Sea. Like territorial waters, Vietnam and China restrict military activities within the EEZ. Although such arguments by claimants for more re¬strictions in these zones are tenuous, they could be useful justification to cover military actions by states like China, which is the most active in enforcing a restrictive EEZ.Freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is the most immediate U.S. concern to ensure naval ves-sels retain all rights of access. Current policy by China and Vietnam restricts foreign naval activities in their zones beyond that normally attributed to UNCLOS. Concluding an Incidents at Sea Agreement with China would clarify the rights and responsibilities between the two. Other forms of government-to-government interaction could build confidence in present and fu¬ture agreements, and leverage common interests. U.S. ratification of UNCLOS is another important step to in¬fluence the evolution of future interpretations of free¬dom of navigation toward more open use. Although a more difficult proposition, the United States should demand the clarification of the historic claims made in the South China Sea in order to facilitate negotiating a settlement and accelerate economic development.

The national strategy of the United States has reemphasized the Asia-Pacific region, but subsequent actions in that direction seem to be preempted by more immediate crises elsewhere in the world and by internal political disputes. Nonetheless, events in the region continue to evolve and the United States must stay actively engaged or lose its long-standing influence. With the status of China rising and other regional states weighing their options between Chinese and American power, a better understanding by American policymakers of the region's disputes is necessary to maintain American diplomatic, economic, and security influence under more austere conditions. Of the issues daunting Southeast Asia, few are as poorly understood by U.S. policymakers as the dispute between Vietnam and China over the Paracel Islands

The Spratly Islands disputes are the nexus of interests and clashes for U.S. partners and competitors that will draw in the United States as it involves itself more in Asia-Pacific issues. This analysis may help readers to better understand these disputes and how the United States may better address them.

Major law and policy issues in the South China Sea are discussed mainly from the perspectives of leading American and European scholars in the study of the complex South China Sea disputes. The issues include regional maritime cooperation and regime building, Southeast Asian countries’ responses to the Chinese assertiveness, China’s historic claims, maritime boundary delimitation and excessive maritime claims, military activities and the law of the sea, freedom of navigation and its impact on the problem, the dispute between Vietnam and China, confidence-building measures and U.S.-Taiwan-China relations in the South China Sea, and Taiwan’s role in the resolution to the South China Sea issues. Over the past three years, there have been several incidents in the South China Sea between the claimants, and also between the claimants and non-claimants over fisheries, collection of seismic data, exploration for oil and gas resources, and exercise of freedom of navigation. Third party concerns and involvement in the South China Sea disputes have been increasing as manifested in actions taken by the United States, India, and Japan. It is therefore important to examine South China Sea disputes from the legal and political perspective and from the view point of American and European experts who have been studying South China Sea issues for many years.

Renewed interest in the Asia-Pacific region entails greater U.S. responsibilities and involvement in the area's problems. Of all the issues the United States will face in the region, none may involve as many players; legal, economic, and security interests; intricate considerations; historic implications; or persistent, if low key, conflict as the intractable disputes around the Spratly Islands. And none of the issues are probably as poorly understood by U.S. policymakers as the South China Sea disputes. For these reasons, the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) is pleased to publish this timely analysis of the Spratly Islands dispute. It examines the economic and security importance of the region to the surrounding claiming states: the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, and the violent acts and potential for instability in the region that has resulted. To better understand the positions of these parties, this monograph then delves into the customary international law claims for sovereignty through historic and occupation doctrines, and the subsequent maritime jurisdiction claims made through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. U.S. interests and resulting involvement are also explained to better understand these positions and inform U.S. policymakers on actions the United States may take to promote peace and economic development in an important region consisting of allies and crucial trading and security partners. This monograph then makes practical suggestions to directly improve U.S. security and economic interests in the region. In the end, the conflict in the Spratly Islands is not one for the United States to solve, but its ability to contribute, facilitate, balance, or to support is necessary toward a solution from which all may benefit in the long term. The Spratly Islands Region And Why It Is Important * Importance of the Spratly Region to the United States * Determination of a Habitable Island from a Rock * United States: Honest Broker or Balancer? In addition, this unique collection of American military documents provides a special view of recent Chinese military and policy developments. Contents: China Shaping the Operational Environment - A Disciple on the Path of Deception and Influence * The "People" in the PLA: Recruitment, Training, and Education in China's 80-Year-Old Military * China's Maritime Quest * The PLA At Home and Abroad: Assessing The Operational Capabilities of China's Military * Arms Sales To Taiwan: Enjoy The Business While It Lasts * China's Role In The Stabilization Of Afghanistan * The Coming of Chinese Hawks * Turkey and China: Unlikely Strategic Partners. This ebook also includes the annual U.S. intelligence community worldwide threat assessment in Congressional testimony by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.

First published in 1982. Wide-ranging and fully documented, this book is the first detailed study of the origins, contexts and consequences of the long-standing dispute between China, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines over the Paracel and Spratly Archipelagos in the South China Sea - one of the world's most strategically important inter-ocean basins and China's southern maritime frontier. Samuels' analysis: * Highlights the impact of the shifting balance of power in Asia and the growing competition for oceanic resources * Examines the implications of the dispute in terms of the historical and modern role of china as a maritime power in Asia.