Defence Minister Richard Marles has stated the nuclear subs will be essential for protecting Australia’s vital trade passages through the Indo-Pacific, a region where China is showing growing assertiveness. He told the ABC’s Insiders program the AUKUS submarines would back up Australia’s interest in protecting trade and freedom of navigation and flight in the South China Sea.
So, what is the dispute over the South China Sea all about?
The South China Sea is undoubtedly of strategic importance and it is of concern that China has breached international law there. But there is really no evidence that Australia’s freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is currently under serious threat. Only a war between China and the US is likely to affect Australia’s free access to the sea for trading purposes.
One-third of the world’s shipping passes through the South China Sea, carrying over $3 trillion in trade each year. It also contains lucrative fisheries that are crucial for the food security of millions in Southeast Asia. Huge oil and gas reserves are believed to lie beneath its seabed. China has been involved in conflicts with its neighbours, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan over rights in the Sea.
Since 2012, China been using its considerable naval might to assert control over the area it claims. It has seized small land formations and installed military bases on artificial islands it has created by dredging 13 square kilometres of land from the ocean floor. China wants to create an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in most of the South China Sea. An EEZ would provide China with sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, and conserving natural resources in the EEZ and jurisdiction for activities such as “marine scientific research” and “the protection and preservation of the marine environment’.
China asserts that military activities are not permissible in a coastal state’s EEZ without prior permission. Only 27 other countries in the world agree with this position. States known to operate military vessels in foreign EEZs without notice include the United States, Russia, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom (U.K.), and, ironically, China. Australia and South Africa both conduct military activities in foreign EEZs throughout the Pacific without coastal state consent.
In 2013, the Philippines filed a case against China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, seeking a ruling on its sovereign rights in waters near islands and reefs it occupies which it said China had infringed by interfering with fishing and petroleum exploration. China conducted military drills in the waters in the run up to the case and the USA has conducted “freedom of navigation” exercises in the area.
On 12 July 2016, the Court rejected China’s claims over almost all the waters in the South China Sea. The Court rebuked China on everything from its interference in its smaller neighbour’s fishing to the environmental devastation wrought by its large-scale construction of islands on fragile coral reefs. The tribunal threw out China’s “nine dash line” which asserts the country’s claim to most of the South China Sea based on “historic rights”. The Court held that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the prevailing law. The Court did not “…rule on any question of sovereignty over land territory and would not delimit any maritime boundary between the Parties”. But applied to the South China Sea, the law basically gives each country rights to the sea up to 200 navigable miles from its coastline with the remainder classed as international waters.
China announced it would not accept the Court’s ruling.
Both China and the USA have engaged in aggressive actions in the South China Sea.
Yet both countries seem to have an abiding economic interest in peace in the region.
Of course, China is not the only great power to ignore international law. In 1986 the USA refused to abide a decision of the International Court of Justice brought against it by Nicaragua, not to mention breaches of international law associated with its intervention in Iraq. And the USA has not even ratified the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS).
Although the United States was an original architect of the treaty, US Senate consent to ratification has remained stalled through three successive presidential administrations. Nevertheless, customary law does bind the USA and it is largely the same as the law reflected by the UNCLOS treaty.
In some parts of the body politic, including the left, there can be a tendency to ignore Chinese transgressions of international law.
Sometimes this is because Chinese actions in the South China Sea are regarded as purely reactions to US military activity in the region, the presence of US military bases in Guam, Diego Garcia, South Korea and Japan that ring China and the US’s failure to accord China rival superpower status in the region.
But the perspectives of other countries in the region should not be overlooked. For example, Nguyen Hong Thao, Assistant to Professor in Law at the National University of Hanoi, has written:
“The land reclamation made by China on the low tide elevations (LTE) far from the Chinese mainland…has occurred at a very fast pace and huge scale… China uses the biggest dredge ships in the world to destroy the coral reef ecosystem for extracted material. This damages over 300 hectares of coral reef, creating initial loss of more than $100 million every year for countries in South China Sea…And as many others have pointed out, China’s transformation of LTEs into artificial islands, followed by demands for the international community to give them the legal status of natural islands and recognize an exclusive economic zone, violated UNCLOS which China is a party to…These LTEs …are designed to be military bases equipped with heavy guns, ports and airfields…These bases can serve as departure points for Chinese coast guard, navy, and fishery inspection forces to drive away, shoot, loot and rob Malaysian, Filipino, and Vietnamese fishing boats, all the while slowly establishing a ban on fishing in the area and advancing the nine-dash line claim in the South China Sea…China’s bases are clearly of an offensive nature and threaten regional peace and stability. This is why the United States, the G7 and other countries have felt compelled to protest.”
Australia should advocate in favour of international law and adherence to its rules and processes to both great powers. The South China Sea dispute should be utilised by Australia and other middle powers as a vehicle to urge the USA to ratify UNCLOS. UNCLOS should provide the framework for negotiated settlements of the disputes in the Sea.
In criticising the heavy anti-Chinese bias of the Age’s panel of experts for its recent ‘Red Alert’ series on China, Paul Keating suggested other more balanced experts should have been on the panel. One of these was former Australian diplomat John McCarthy
McCarthy has stated that we should emphasise regional transparency and agreed rules of conduct rather than mimic US rhetoric on China. “While China is the main aggressor in the South China Sea it is not the only one.” writes McCarthy. “There’s a case to be made outside the realms of this note for less subservience to US security policy. This isn’t, however, an argument for blowing with the wind of Chinese ambition.”
The Strait of Malacca
While South China Sea is an important shipping route, most of this traffic is intra-Asia trade, while the Strait of Malacca serves as a crucial link between Asia and the rest of the world.
The Strait of Malacca is a crucial chokepoint that connects the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and serves as a major shipping route for international trade. This narrow waterway is strategically located between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, making it a vital gateway for China’s maritime trade.
China does not control the Strait of Malacca and makes no claim to it.
China has developed strategic partnerships with Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, which all border the Strait of Malacca. These partnerships include trade agreements, joint military exercises, and infrastructure development projects. Additionally, China has been investing in port development projects in Southeast Asia, such as the Port of Gwadar in Pakistan and the Kyaukpyu port in Myanmar, which could help diversify its shipping routes.
China has also taken steps to enhance its naval capabilities and establish a presence in the Indian Ocean, which is connected to the Strait of Malacca. In 2017, China established its first overseas military base in Djibouti, which is located near the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, another important chokepoint for global trade.