This book provides an explanation of Chinese policy towards the South China Sea, and argues that this has been sculpted by the changing dynamics of the law of the sea in conjunction with regional geopolitical flux.
The past few decades have witnessed a bifurcated trend in China’s management of territorial disputes. Over the years, while China gradually calmed and settled most land-border disputes with its neighbors, disputes on the ocean frontier continued to simmer in a seething cauldron. China's Policy towards the South China Sea attributes the distinctive path of China’s approach to maritime disputes to a unique factor – the law of the sea (LOS) as the "rules of the road" in the ocean. By deconstructing the concept of "sovereignty" and treating the LOS as an evolving regime, the book examines how the changing dynamics of the LOS regime have complicated and reshaped the nature and content of sovereign disputes in the ocean regime as well as the options of settlement. Applying the findings to the South China Sea case, the author traces the learning curve on which China has embarked to comprehend the complexity of the dispute accordingly and finds that it is the dynamic interaction of the law of the sea regime and the geopolitical conditions that has driven the evolution of China’s South China Sea policy.
This book will be of great interest to students of Chinese and Asian politics, international law, international relations and security studies.
Author(s): Lingqun Li
Series: Contemporary Issues in the South China Sea
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2018
Cover
Half Title
Title page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
The debate over China rising and the South China Sea case
The unique course of China’s evolving policy towards the South China Sea
Structure of the book
Notes
Bibliography
1. The Law of the Sea regime and the transformation of sovereign disputes in the South China Sea
The evolving Law of the Sea (LOS) regime
The concept of sovereignty revisited
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
2. The pre-1971 period: The PRC’s initial claims in the SCS and its view of international regimes
The South China Sea
The PRC’s original claims to the South China Sea
Claims and counter-claims between China and other disputants
China’s view of international law and international organizations
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
3. China in the UNCLOS III era: Where changes began
A historical overview of the LOS regime
China’s interaction with the LOS regime
The 1974 Paracel clash
Analysis
Notes
Bibliography
4. The 1980s: Shaping a new game in the SCS
Transforming the SCS dispute
China’s practice in the 1980s
Analysis
Notes
Bibliography
5. A multilateral turn in the SCS: 1990–2002
China’s legal position on the SCS
A multilateral turn in political engagement in the 1990s
Policy practices of maritime governance in the SCS
China’s position on solutions for the dispute: continuing to push for joint development
Analysis
Notes
Bibliography
6. The 2002–2013 period: Changes and continuities
The CLCS submissions and the nine-dash line
Political engagement in the 2002–2013 period
Policy practices of maritime governance in the SCS
China’s practice of dispute resolution
Analysis
Notes
Bibliography
7. The South China Sea arbitration case and beyond
Development of China’s legal position
Political engagement in the post-2013 period
Maritime governance practices
Best practices: joint development and more
Analysis
Notes
Bibliography
8. Conclusion
The influence of the IMR and its interaction with geopolitics
The big debate revisited: status quo or revisionism?
Policy recommendations
Future research
Notes
Bibliography
Appendix A: Declaration on the Territorial Sea
Appendix B: The Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of the People’s Republic of China
Appendix C: The Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf of the People’s Republic of China
Appendix D: Summary of the Position Paper of the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Matter of Jurisdiction in the South China Sea Arbitration Initiated by the Republic of the
Philippines
Appendix E: Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China on the Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of the South China Sea Arbitration by the Arbitral
Tribunal Established at the Request of the epublic of the Philippines
Appendix F: Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China on the Award of 12 July 2016 of the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Sea Arbitration Established
at the Request of the Republic of the Philippines
Appendix G: Statement of the Government of the People’s Republic of China on China’s Territorial Sovereignty and Maritime Rights and Interests in the South China Sea
Index
