The United States also faces a challenge in enforcing international law in the South China Sea. It is the geostrategic importance that is usually the main reason for the parties to strengthen their claim over the Spratlys and the Paracels. The "Implementing the Strategic Action Programme for the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand" (SCS SAP Project) completed its Inception Phase with the 1st Steering Committee Meeting held online on the 29 and 30 of June, 2021 with official representatives from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam and the UNEP Task Manager for the project, with the support of . 2023 Center for Strategic & International Studies. LinkedIn and 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. In addition, the United States has affirmed some responsibility for the defense of Taiwan and has close security ties with Singapore and New Zealand. U.S. leaders should not be afraid of tension in the U.S.-China relationship. Importantly, American access to four airbases (with potentially more to be made available at a later date)especially those on Luzon and Palawanwill make U.S. air power resident in Southeast Asia. Anil Trigunayat, 5th Generation Warfare: A Real Global Warming (Alarming) and its Implications for Pakistan, The Geopolitics of Indo-Pacific: the Rise of India and the Possible Challenges for Pakistan, 75 Years of Pakistan's Independence: Audit of Achievements and Failures, Bacterial Attack on Azerbaijani Oil a fictitious scenario, Pakistan, from the Shackles of Oligarchy to the Emergence of Democracy, Impact of Climate Change on Flood-Stricken People in Balochistan, Dimensions of Religion: Use, Misuse and Beyond, Breaking Free from Fossil Fuels: Why Nuclear Energy is Significant for Pakistan, Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education and Scientific Research: an interview with Fatima Roumate, Dalits, the Bottom of Indias Caste Ladder. India is training crews for Vietnams new Kilo-class submarines and will sell Vietnam BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. The United States sent a carrier battle group there as well. Russian long-range aviation, despite performing frequent combat missions against Ukraine, is also conducting Pacific patrols, sometimes together with Chinese H-6K strategic bombers (Nikkei Asia, November 30). Talks are focused on articles that are relevant to disaster relief, but the agreements eventual parameters could expand as the U.S.-Vietnam security relationship matures. Washington (United States of America), February 27 (ANI): A Chinese J-11 fighter jet armed with air-to-air missiles intercepted the US Navy reconnaissance jet over the South China Sea, the Wall Street Journal reported. The result has been to heighten tensions and allow Chinese forces to more easily project military power across the region. The second will analyze the strategic landscape in and around the South China Sea. World. The diplomatic tempest at the ARF came when U.S. security attention was preoccupied with ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the global counterterrorism campaign with Osama bin Laden still at large. Should they be neutral, China may lord over the southern reaches of the South China Sea from military bases on its newly created and expanded islands in the Spratlys. It is little surprise, then, that Southeast Asian states are drawing closer to the United Statesboth seeking aid in developing their own defense capabilities and hoping that stronger ties act as a deterrent to Chinese assertiveness. Abstract. All these aspects highlight the strategic indispensability of the South China Sea for global trade routes. With the incoming administration likely to grapple early with South China Sea issues, the CSIS Southeast Asia Program, directed by Dr. Amy Searight, worked in collaboration with other Asia colleagues at CSISDr. In recent years, Chinas inventive engineering feats have allowed it to create more than 3,200 acres of new land in the South China Sea. It remains entirely plausible that any Chinese strategy could have a long term goal of possessing the power to deny US or western warships access to the SCS, with China largely laying claim to most of the area as it's own waters. Southeast Asia will inevitably be rendered subordinate and compliant to Chinas will. Those bases may be vulnerable, but before and at the outbreak of hostilities, they will allow China to project power deep into maritime Southeast Asia, to threaten commercial and military passage through the sea, and to impose and enforce an air defense identification zone. Diplomatic, informational, legal, and economic responses are currently underrepresented in U.S. China policy, and their incorporation into the policy toolkit will be important for successfully dissuading China over the long-term. Instead, perceptions of weakness may encourage leaders in Beijing to embrace more assertive behavior. 2013 The Philippines challenges Chinas claims of historic rights and other actions in an arbitration case under the Law of the Sea Convention. Over the longer term, American defense contractors may have their sights set on sales of fighter aircraft and attack helicopters. President Musharraf requested China to invest in this important strategic chokepoint in the Indian Ocean., to which China agreed. The South China Sea is one of the most important trade pathways in the world. 2014 The United States and the Philippines sign an enhanced defense pact, strengthening the U.S.-Filipino relationship. U.S. access to the military facilities on the South China Seas southern flank, however, would shift the regions balance of power in Americas favor. Washingtons relationship with Hanoi will make that more palatable. In addition to far flung island territories (formerly occupied by Japan) in the South Pacific, the United States had a substantial military garrison in Japan and close ties with South Korea and the Philippines a former colony. The largest and most powerful of these . Importance of South China Sea The South China Sea is a busy international waterway, one of the main arteries of global trade worth more than $5 trillion and is growing year on year. China perceives Vietnam as an obstacle for acquiring its control over this strategic sea. In a first, a Modi-Obamajoint statementlast year explicitly raised concerns over the South China Sea and called on all parties to avoid the threat or use of force and pursue resolution of territorial and maritime disputes through all peaceful means.. More than half of the world's fishing vessels are in the South China Sea, and millions of people depend on these waters for their food and livelihoods. Pexels India-China Indo-Pacific South China Sea Signalling is important international relations. In short, adopting a more robust deterrence approach need not prevent cooperation that is in the interests of both countries. Preserving the U.S. military edge is key to maintaining the U.S. position in Asia. In particular, Chinas growing assertiveness over sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea could be assessed as a serious challenge to the status quo in the region. The neighboring South East Asian countries of the highly volatile and busiest waterways of the South China Sea (SCS) have overlapping claims of sovereignty. Its strategic economic importance and its geographic location at the confluence of several spheres of influence have rendered it one of the "world's hotspots". Without the southern American presence, Chinese forces could more easily divide American forces east and west in the event of a crisis, more easily defend territorial claims or intimidate Malaysia and Indonesia, and more easily threaten maritime and air traffic crisscrossing the South China Sea. 2016 The Arbitration Tribunal rules in favor of the Philippines. But as it does so, it acts as midwife to a very real strategic realignment in Southeast Asia, one which promises to benefit the United States and its partners. China, Russia and the Munich Security Conference. This principled stand allows the United States to defend its interests without embroiling itself in the murky sovereignty claims at the heart of the South China Sea dispute. Nevertheless, Beijing had taken its first overt step to control the South China Sea. Beijing may not find it quite as easy to run roughshod over Hanoi in the coming years. The global focus of economic power has traditionally been centred over the west with the UK and the USA as the key contributors; however in recent years, this has shifted east (see Figure 1), with the main reason for this being rapid urbanization in developing countries, in particular China. . U.S. Navy/Handout[/caption]. In 2012, then Chinese president Hu Jintao voiced his desire to make China a powerful maritime nation. By contrast, China views. Media Relations Manager, External Relations. The United States now has the opportunity to secure for another generation the peace that has held in Asia for nearly four decades now. The Art of War helps expose the motivation behind past, current, and future Chinese actions. Less sexy but no less important is a forthcoming arrangement by which Vietnam will allow the United States military to preposition supplies and equipment in Da Nang on the central coast. Thus, it is said that the South China Sea could be the battleground of World War III. The area includes several hundred small islands, rocks, and reefs, with the majority located in the Paracel and Spratly Island chains. Cobra Gold, hosted by Thailand and led by the United States, is the largest annual multilateral military exercise in Asia. Second, the United States should feel comfortable adopting a patient approach in pushing a return to full democracy in Thailand. The security assurances provided by the U.S. military presence coupled with the advent of regional institutions, notably ASEAN and the Asian Development Bank, nurtured that growth. To facilitate capacity building, Washington should preserve regional defense relationships while recognizing that the ability of the United States to partner with frontline states depends on their cooperation and adherence to good governance and human rights. U.S. responses to Chinas South China Sea activities have been insufficient to alter Chinas behavior and have fed the narrative that China is pushing the United States out of the region. According to the U.S. State Department, it has been estimated that China is effectively blocking the development of $2.5 trillion worth of oil and gas resources in the South China Sea. China, of course, has important strengths in Burma. Moving forward, freedom of navigation and routine presence operations should be executed on a regular basis to demonstrate U.S. resolve to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. The most likely single scenario for a major military engagement against a great power adversary would be one against China centered on the South China Sea. Because of its location, this sea is extremely strategic because it connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans (Strait of Malacca). To understand the statement we have to have a particular knowledge over the issue and have to look over the geopolitical and strategic importance of South China Sea. In addition to fishing grounds, the South China Sea contains an abundance of energy resources, . The Chinese recently built an island in the South China Sea, apparently as a potential airbase. China has shown it is willing to accept substantial risk to achieve its ends, and has engaged in outright coercion against weaker neighbors like the Philippines and Vietnam. China has tried to effectively annex the whole South China Sea region as its territorial waters, according to Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). access to Thailands military facilities, particularly the strategically located and well-equipped Utapao airbase, is considered invaluable. The Obama administration has made modest gains in this regard, but it will be up for to the next president to seize that opportunity and ensure that Southeast Asias future is prosperous, peaceful and free. Utapao has been suggested as a permanent Southeast Asian Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) hub. Currently, President Xi Jinping makes frequent references to Chinas possession of the South China Sea since ancient times an assertion that lacks any validity historically or legally. China's plan for populating the South China Sea was launched in 2012 when "Sansha City", the administrative centre for all Chinese-claimed features in the South China Sea on Woody Island in the . Since the mid-1990s, China has pursued a strategy . The Thai people are lurching towards a new political arrangement, a process that Thais have to see through for themselves. Chinese missiles on the mainland already hold all U.S. Asian bases at risk. Three years ago an arbitration tribunal issued a decision finding that Chinas maritime claims in the South China Sea are inconsistent with the Law of the Sea Convention. Nevertheless, for America, this new world will be profoundly discomfiting and even alien. The reaction of the Chinese Foreign Minister was incendiary and revealing. The South China Sea has become important to the US because of China's challenge to the liberal rules-based order that America has promoted since the Pacific war. South China Sea is also strategically important due to the rising competition between China, Vietnam, Philippine and the US for military supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region. Yet, it was and is all of that. Accordingly, Malaysia's note verbale serves as the strongest stance of Malaysia on the SCS in recent times and aligns itself with the top priority of its DWP. The strategic signal of an Indian presence in the South China Sea Harsh V. Pant India has wider stakes in South China Sea as nearly 55% of India's trade with the Indo-Pacific region passes through these waters. Now, the two militaries will increasingly exercise and train across a broad spectrum of military operations, from the low end to the high. A third of the world's shipping passes through it, its fisheries are critical sources of food for millions of people. The United States and its Pacific allies should consider whether it is feasible and sensible to coordinate the activities of USAID, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. f) . Many of these countries suffer from corruption and lack for effective rule of law. Aung San Suu Kyi has no interest in antagonizing Chinawhich shares a border with Burma and is a major source of foreign investmentbut nor can she afford to alienate the United States or India. Chinas militarization and territorial expansion in the South China Sea is illegal and dangerous, Vice President Pence said at the East Asia Summit last year. The message will be clear; the era of American international leadership and predominance is over and a new preeminent power has taken its place. "American aircraft, this is the PLA air force. In the past two weeks, Filipino . China has harassed U.S. Navy ships operating in the South China Sea, warned military flights to stay away from its artificial islands, and recently seized a U.S. drone operating in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. But in order to achieve renewed stability in the regionto ensure that Southeast Asians are not susceptible to non-military Chinese coercionthe United States must strive to become more than just the security partner of choice. The strategic importance of the South China Sea cannot be overstated. the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States." Chinese control of the SCS-and, more generally, Chinese domination of China's near-seas region, meaning the SCS, the East China Sea (ECS), and the Yellow Sea-could substantially aect U.S. strategic, political, and economic interests in the Indo-Pacic region and . Ownership claims to them are used to bolster claims to the surrounding sea and its resources. Seventh Fleet transits regularly between the Pacific and Indian Oceans (including the Bay of Bengal). Such pressure should focus on concrete, near-term objectives, such as putting a stop to reeducation of regime critics. Tokyo and Manila agreed to a strategic partnership in 2011. Whomever is elected to be the next American president, that person would be wise to have in place a Plan B should the TPP fail to pass the Senate this year (such a Plan B is admittedly unlikely, given that both major candidates would bear responsibility for its failure in the first place). The sea is rich in resources and holds significant strategic and political importance. Thailand, of course, has been an important security partner for the United States. Read more, One Woodrow Wilson Plaza1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NWWashington, DC 20004-3027, 2023 The Wilson Center. Therefore, the SCS has geopolitical and geostrategic importance for the energy and economic security of China and East Asian countries; but also for the USA as $1.2 trillion of its trade moves through the waters. Islands in the South China Sea The islands of the South China Sea can be grouped into two island chains. India has likewise pursued deeper defense ties with Vietnam, and Indian warships just made port calls at Cam Ranh Bay and Subic Bay while en route to trilateral naval exercises with the United States and Japan in the Western Pacific. Post-Mao China, with the emergence of Deng Xiaoping as paramount leader, became a major constructive presence dedicated to economic development fueled by opening the Middle Kingdom to the region and the world. The USSJohn C. Stennistied up there for a few days in April. No other state in the region can match this increase in projection and rival China due to the economic differences. And thus a new strategic map of Asia begins to emerge. A critical and early Chinese test of U.S. resolve is likely to come in the South China Sea, where Washington has struggled to respond effectively to assertive Chinese behavior. April 26, 2016 There is widespread interest in the rising tensions over the waters east of China. Miguel . Due to the strategic importance of the area, China will continue to establish a maritime power in the SCS as the most dominant player among states in the region. Successful capacity building efforts will allow Southeast Asian states to better help themselves, bolstering deterrence against low-level Chinese coercion and allowing the U.S. military to focus more on deterring high-level contingencies. director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative at Peking . The United States can stand firm on its principles and deter China from undermining the regional order while maintaining a productive relationship. In 2010, the US declared its freedom of navigation in the SCS to be a national interest in response to Chinas increasingly assertive posture. The most important and least tangible stake in the South China Sea concerns the preservation (or not) of a regional rules-based order supported by U.S. power. With the National League for Democracy now in power in Naypyidaw, China cannot rely on Burma as an automatic ally. Security, Strategy, and Military Dynamics in South China Sea: Cross-National Perspectives on JSTOR. It would also open the option of persistently jamming Chinese radar installations in the Spratlys. The growing size and capability of the Chinese air force, navy, and coast guard allow Beijing to consistently monitor and exercise de facto control over most of the South China Sea. There were, however, cautionary signs for those prepared to see them. Not taking a position on sovereignty allows the United States to flexibly intervene in the South China Sea to defend its interests and international rules and norms, while undercutting Chinese attempts to paint U.S. actions as a threat to Beijings sovereignty. Navy P-8s are now regularly deploying to Singapore and, although without regular access, they have conducted patrols from Malaysia as well. Does US-hegemonic decline translate into a fight between democracy and autocracy in maintaining a benign world order? These factors combined give a strategic importance to the South China Sea that has led to numerous states Brunei, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam each pressing their own claims to . Even if Beijings island-building campaign succeeds in turning the South China Sea into a Chinese lake, it will be one in which Chinese forces are constantly monitored and from which they can only depart with implicit American acquiescence. But if China continues to play its cards wrong and if the United States proves itself a dependable partner, American warships could one day regularly operate out of Cam Ranh Bay, the strategically located port-of-call, for the first time since the Vietnam War. The message will be clear; the era of American international leadership and predominance is over and a new preeminent power has taken its place. In my mind, this leads to 3 key questions to base any form of analysis from: In order to understand the contention of the South China Sea and its significance, it is firstly imperative to understand the geopolitical importance of Asia, which has given rise to Chinese pre-eminence; enabling its rise to contemporary major political power on the global stage. Pressing Challenges to U.S. Army Acquisition: A Conversation with Hon. Check out the linked article on the Belt and road initiative now.
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