Satellite images showing
the extent of land reclamation of China and Vietnam in South China Sea have
sparked debates about who the biggest aggressor is and what the status quo is
(see: “Who Is the Biggest Aggressor in the
South China Sea?,” “Who Is the Biggest Aggressor in the
South China Sea? (A Rejoinder),” and “The South China Sea: Defining the
‘Status Quo’“).
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| It’s time to put things in perspective in the South China Sea |
To be specific, concept of
“aggression” is mentioned in the Resolution 3314 of United Nations General
Assembly on the 14th of December, 1972. Aggression is the use of armed force by
a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political
independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the
Charter of the United Nations. The aggressed Nation has the right to defend
itself.
The recent land reclamation
work in South China Sea is tied closely to the issue of sovereignty claims.
Historical evidence proves that Vietnam has been the first state to have
administration over the Spratly and Paracel Islands dating back to at least the
17th century. China, by contrast, only took interest in the Paracels in 1909
and claimed them as the southern terminus of its land in 1932. China was also
the last country to set foot in the Spratlys in 1988 after using force to shoot
down three Vietnamese ships and brutally massacring 64 Vietnamese without any
weapons in their hands. The Philippines took interest in Spratlys at the end of
1950s, while Malaysia was attending to the southern part of these islands in
1980s.
The first step that any
sovereign state which has gotten attacked by force would take is reinforcing
its garrisons to prevent any violation of its sovereignty. In 1988, Vietnam
increased its troops on 21 features in the Spratlys and clearly informed the
world that it was doing so. The Philippines has stationed troops on 8 features,
China on 9, and Taiwan on 1. Malaysia has increased its occupation from 3 in
1980 to 5 features in 1999.
In his recent article for The Diplomat, Greg Austin wrote that:
“By 2015, according to the United States government, Vietnam occupied 48
features and China occupied eight”. First, Austin misquoted from the
remarks of U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, David Shear, on May 13, 2015.
Shear actually said that “Vietnam has 48 outposts,” but Austin reported it as
“features” instead of “outposts” in the initial part of his piece.
Second, it is important to
look more closely at the nature of Vietnamese behavior in the South China Sea
beyond just that statistic. For instance, in 1995, in order to minimize
tensions and create favorable conditions for the settlement of disputes,
Vietnam was the first one to call on other countries of concern to preserve the
status quo. More generally, Vietnam tends to limit the ‘outposts’ on its
features to include only some observation points to ensure proper
administration as well as security from foreign invasion. For example, on
Barque Canada Shoal (Bai Thuyen Chai), which is 17 nautical miles long and 3
nautical miles wide, Vietnam has a garrison in the center and two observation
outposts in the two termini of the shoal.
Given this, it is quite
unfair to compare Vietnam’s activities in the South China Sea with that of
China’s. According to comments by General Phùng Quang Thanh, on June 1, 2015,
Vietnam still maintains outposts in 9 islands and 12 reefs. But having several
outposts in one natural feature is not like reclaiming land to create a feature
many times larger than its original size to build a military complex, as China
is doing.
Third, it is important to
distinguish China’s activities from that of other claimants and be clear about
the consequences of Beijing’s actions. The construction by Vietnam, the
Philippines and Malaysia started all before the conclusion of the Declaration
of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed between China and ASEAN in
2002. They have similarities: they are being undertaken in islands and reefs
naturally surrounded by water at high tide; they aim to prevent erosion and
improve the standard of living, they include materials being transported from
mainland; they occur on features which are being increasingly civilized and
starting to open for tourism; they do not include heavy weapons; they are meant
for defense rather than creating military bases that can threat other nations;
and they are not changing nature of the feature.
The land reclamation made
by China on the low tide elevations (LTE) far from the Chinese mainland, which
is approximately 1000km, has started since 1988 and has occurred at a very fast
pace and huge scale. Satellite images show that China has been expanding the
land reclamation area from 20 hectares to 810 hectares. In Subi, an LTE, the
speed of land reclamation from May to June 2015 is 8 hectares per day, transforming
the LTE to a military base of around 3.87 square kilometers capable of building
an airfield strip of about 3km. Remember that the whole area encompassing all
islands and reefs in Spratlys is not more than 10 square kilometers, stretched
over the sea area which is about 160,000 to 180,000 square kilometers.
Besides the scale of these
activities, China’s actions are also negatively impacting the region and
infringing on international law. 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, in addition of course to
the damage to the environment which. And as many others have pointed out,
China’s transformation of LTEs into artificial islands, followed by demands by
the international community to give them the legal status of natural islands
and recognize a 12 nautical mile territorial sea and even a 200 nautical mile
exclusive economic zone, violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea (UNCLOS) which China is a party to.
In contrast, Vietnam’s land
reclamation is only 0.2% of China’s land reclamation made as of March 2015.
China has declared that construction work in these LTEs is in the interest of
marine protection, marine science research, and SAR (search and rescue).
However, above all, they are designed to be military bases equipped with heavy
guns, ports and airfields. The consequences of this are quite dire. Given the
extent and speed of Chinese land reclamation, the world has reason to worry
about the threat to freedom of navigation, at least around 12 nautical miles
from Chinese construction. Furthermore, 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.
If China continues its activities in the South China Sea, this has the
potential trigger an arms race in the region as smaller nations feel they need
to invest more in weapons as the only guarantee of their security and
sovereignty. Because in the South China Sea, China seems to not only be
violating international law, but setting its own rules.
Nguyen Hong Thao is an
Assistant Professor in Law at the National University of Hanoi, Vietnam. He
also serves at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.
Source: thediplomat
