The Impact of China's Rising Assertion in South China
Sea
Wednesday, 11 July 2012 03:14
Written by WebMaster
The South China Sea dispute between China and
several of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
countries has brewed for many years, but the recent face-off
with Vietnam and the Philippines have made one thing clear:
Beijing is becoming more assertive with regards to its
territorial claims.
On June 25, 2012, state-backed
China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) said in a statement on
its website that it would open nine offshore blocks in the South
China Sea for joint cooperation with foreign
companies.
Seven of the blocks are
sited in the Zhongjianan Basin, while two are located in areas
covering the Wan'an Basin and the Nanweixi Basin. The
blocks--ranging in water depths between 984 feet to 13,123 feet
(300 meters to 4,000 meters)--span an area of 61,824 square
miles (180,124 square kilometers), CNOOC
said.
In relation to Vietnam's
coastline, the blocks are 57 nautical miles from the coast of
Nha Trang, Khanh Hao Province and 37 nautical miles from Phu
Quoc Island, data from the Vietnam Petroleum Association shows.
The VPA also provided proof on its website that all the blocks
are sited within Vietnam's exclusive economic zone. In a heated
attempt to drive its point across to the international
community,
the VPA published a
statement on its website on June 30, 2012, which "condemns CNOOC
action".
China responded with a
concerted launch of four combat-ready patrol ships to the
disputed area on July 1, 2012, which only served to heightened
tensions in the ASEAN
region.
China's new-found
assertiveness is especially felt profoundly in the
Philippines.
Speaking
at the 65th anniversary of the Philippines Air Force, the
country's defense minister, Voltaire Gazmin, said that the
country's military upgrade plan includes the purchase of attack
aircraft, lead-in-fighter-trainers, attack helicopters and
transport aircraft.
The defense
minister's speech came just a few days after President Benigno
Aquino said that the Philippines could place a request to the
United States to deploy US P3C Orion spy planes over the South
China Sea, The Straits Times reported on July 2,
2012.
The weakness of the
Philippines military was highlighted when the Philippines got
into a standoff with China in April 2012, over the Scarborough
Shoal, an outcropping of rocks in the South China Sea that both
countries claim territory. The oil and gas resource-rich shoal,
said Manila, is well within its 230 miles exclusive economic
zone. The Scarborough Shoal is termed Panatag by the Philippines
and Huangyan by China.
On June 15,
2012, the Philippines pulled back a Philippine Coast Guard
patrol vessel and a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
survey ship from the shoal, temporarily ending a two-month
standoff with the Chinese government vessels also in the
disputed waters, Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on July 6,
2012. The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said that
China had committed to withdraw its vessels from the shoal, but
it did not, Philippine Daily Inquirer
added.
To the Philippines, the
Scarborough Shoal incident leaves the same sour aftertaste as an
earlier episode known as "Mischief
Reef".
In 1994, China occupied the
Philippines' Panganiban Reef – otherwise internationally known
as the Mischief Reef – located 130 miles from Palawan. The
Chinese occupation of the reef occurred during a monsoon season
when the Philippine Navy ships were not patrolling the area.
After discovering the trespass, the Philippines had requested
that China leave. But China refused, and said that it needed to
build shelters on the reef for its fishermen. In 1999, the
Philippines discovered that China had erected a four-story
military garrison, which is still occupied and still stands
today.
China has to tread carefully
as its recent actions towards its smaller neighbors could lead to
a decline in goodwill.
Tommy Koh,
chairman of the Center for International Law at the National
University of Singapore, summed up ASEAN's sentiments in a
published speech on The Straits Times on July 4,
2012.
"As China's power continues
to rise, it should be sensitive in its dealings with its smaller
neighbors. In China's conducts of its disputes with Brunei,
Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the South China Sea,
it should scrupulously eschew the use of force or the threat to
use force," Koh said. "As China grows more powerful, it should
learn to speak more softly and exercise its power with great
sensitivity," he added.
### Source:
http://www.rigzone.com ###
