China's Dubious Land Grab in the South China Sea - Bloomberg View
2016-07-12, 6:10 PM
China's Dubious Land Grab in the South China Sea
China’s claim of jurisdiction over pretty much the entire South China Sea boils down to
this: Dudes, we’re back. That is, after a century of humiliation at the hands of foreign
powers and 67 years of rebuilding since the Communists took power, the country is ready
to reassert dominion over a body of water that has been in its sphere of influence for
millennia.
As J. Bruce Jacobs of the American Enterprise Institute explained two years ago, there are
a lot of questions about how much control, if any, China was ever able to assert in past
centuries over an expanse of water that stretches 1,000 miles south of its southernmost
coastline. But it’s definitely capable of asserting control now, so that’s what it’s been
doing -- mainly, by building artificial islands atop reefs in the Spratly Islands and harassing
fishermen from the Philippines and Vietnam.
Such behavior is not unprecedented for an aspiring great power. As has been pointed out
by others, the U.S. behaved similarly in the Caribbean and a few other seas in the late 19th
and early 20th century.
But a big part of China’s self-image is that it’s not an aggressive nation. And while some
peoples on China’s territorial fringes, such as the Tibetans and the Uighurs, might beg to
differ, it’s generally true that China has been far less interested in conquest and
colonization than just about any other major power. So it’s essential for China that its
actions in the South China Sea be seen as reclaiming lost ground, not conquering
anything new.
Two summers ago I went to China with a group of journalists on a trip organized by the
China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, and this topic came up a lot with the government
officials we talked to. It was striking how aggrieved they sounded at the slightest
suggestion that the country’s behavior in the South China Sea might be seen as
aggressive.
Today, though, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague determined in a case
brought by the Philippines that there is “no evidence” under the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea of any historical justification for Chinese dominion over
the South China Sea.
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China's Dubious Land Grab in the South China Sea - Bloomberg View
2016-07-12, 6:10 PM
China had boycotted the proceedings, and the government immediately dismissed the
ruling as “null and void.” Which leaves a potentially combustible situation: An international
court has determined that there is no legitimate way for China to lay claim to most of the
South China Sea. Chinese officials have been asserting the legitimacy of that claim
domestically for so long and with such conviction that there’s really no way they can back
down. Got any ideas for resolving that?
1. Which of course was really 27 years of upheaval during Mao Zedong’s reign and 40
years of rebuilding since.
2. It didn’t come up at all during my just-completed trip to China, I guess because I was
talking to people about business, not foreign policy.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg
LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Justin Fox at justinfox@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net
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