China’s aggression faces strong global pushback | Economic Times

Tensions in the South China Sea (SCS) region is worsening following China’s continued military aggression but this has led to a pushback from the USA and other global powers. India, Australia and besides key European powers are also concerned over the impact of China’s aggressive policies on the use of the South China Sea as a major global gateway for trade. Freedom of Navigation and necessity for rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region are the principles being pursued by India and other like-minded powers. Indian PM Narendra Modi at the 16th East Asia Summit emphasised on the importance of Free, Open and Inclusive Indo-Pacific region.The discussions at the India-ASEAN summit also covered regional and international issues of common interest and concern, including South China Sea and terrorism. Both sides noted the importance of promoting a rules-based order in the region including through upholding adherence to international law, especially the UNCLOS. The leaders affirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, stability, safety and security in the South China Sea, and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.President Joe Biden told Southeast Asian nations on Wednesday the United States would stand with them in defending freedom of the seas and democracy and called China's actions towards Taiwan "coercive" and a threat to peace and stability.Speaking at a virtual East Asia Summit attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Biden said Washington would start talks with partners in the Indo-Pacific about developing a regional economic framework.Australia and ASEAN agreed on Wednesday to establish a "comprehensive strategic partnership," a sign of Canberra's ambition to play a bigger role in the region. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the pact would strengthen diplomatic and security ties and promised the country would "back it with substance". Australia and ASEAN on Wednesday agreed to upgrade their ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”. Meanwhile, Beijing is still waiting to hear from ASEAN about China’s wish to elevate its partnership with the group. Following the Summit Japanese PM Fumio Kishida told reporters that he conveyed Japan's firm stance on maritime security in the South and East China seas. Kishida informed that he also touched on the issues of China's alleged human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region. The Japanese PM also expressed concern over the crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong and the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, he said.The Japanese PM supported Asean' opinion on SCS matters, welcoming the role of Asean in promoting peace, stability in the region. He called for fully implementing DOC and complete COC soon.But it is not just statements that the USA and its ally Japan are focusing. Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Izumo-class helicopter destroyer JS Kaga (DDH 184) and U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1 are conducting bilateral operations in the South China Sea for the first time since Vinson Carrier Strike Group (VINCSG) deployed this summer.While in the South China Sea, Japan and U.S. Navy units are conducting maritime security operations, to include flight operations, coordinated tactical training between surface and air units, refueling-at-sea evolutions, and maritime strike exercises.“The Indo-Pacific is a dynamic region and by continuing to conduct routine operations with our allies and partners throughout international waters and airspace, we demonstrate our unwavering commitment to upholding international law, on the sea and in the air, and to ensuring that all nations can do the same without fear or contest," according to the USA establishment.“Through a series of large-scale exercises, the JMSDF was able to enhance its tactical capabilities as well as strengthen its cooperative relationship with the navies of participating countries,” said Rear Adm. IKEUCHI Izuru, Commanding Officer of IPD21 force, Commander of Escort Flotilla 3. “Our activities in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, which are important international maritime traffic routes, together with the navies of our allies and partners who share our fundamental values and strategic interests, demonstrate our unity and strong will to realize a "free and open Indo-Pacific" based on law.”This marks the second time that a carrier strike group is operating in the South China Sea with the advanced capabilities of the F-35C Lightning II and Navy CMV-22B Osprey. CSG 1 is deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.The US response to the perceived China threat is to build overlapping political and military coalitions of like-minded democracies to contain China—including in Asia– Japan, Australia, India and South Korea—and big powers from Europe. The maritime dimension of these coalitions is currently coagulating. US-driven realpolitik strategic moves are meant to counter what it sees as the ‘China threat’ to its hegemony in Asia. The US has been conducting what it calls “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea to assert navigational rights and freedoms in line with international law. These moves are also being made in the backdrop of new Chinese law. From September 1, China’s new maritime rules designed to control the entry of foreign vessels in what Beijing calls “Chinese territorial waters” took effect. The move is expected to have far-reaching consequences for passage of vessels, both commercial and military, in the disputed South China Sea, East China Sea and Taiwan Strait.Beijing is militarizing the South China Sea, which it considers its backyard. It has stepped up its incursions into other claimant nations’ exclusive economic zones, used its maritime militia to harass fishermen in waters claimed by other countries and parked its survey ships in oil-rich zones in others’ waters.The South China Sea, which lies between China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, is of great economic importance globally. Nearly one-third of the world’s shipping passes through its lanes, and the waters house numerous important fisheries.It is also a critical route for India, both militarily and commercially. The South China Sea plays a vital role in facilitating India’s trade with Japan, South Korea and ASEAN countries, and assists in the efficient procurement of energy supplies. In fact, the Ministry of External Affairs estimates that more than 55% of India’s trade passes through the South China Sea and Malacca Straits. India is also involved in oil and gas exploration in offshore blocks in the margins of the Sea, which has led to standoffs with Chinese authorities.China claims almost the entire area under its controversial nine-dash line and has built artificial islands and set up military outposts in recent years.Emerging power Vietnam has very high stakes in the South China Sea (SCS), which is its life-line. “Its geographical situation clearly brings out this dimension. Vietnam borders the Gulf of Tonkin, Gulf of Thailand, and Pacific Ocean, along with China, Laos, and Cambodia… The Chinese assertion of the ‘nine-dash-line’ threatens its sovereignty. Intrusions into its EEZs harms its normal economic activities,” according to former Deputy NSA SD Pradhan. China perceives Vietnam as an obstacle for acquiring its control over this strategic sea. Not only Vietnam is the strongest opponent of the Chinese nine-dash line claim in the region, Vietnam’s sustained economic growth has pushed it to emerge as an important player in the South East Asia, which China perceives is not in its interests. Its role in the ASEAN in keeping the countries united on the issue of the illegal Chinese claims, maintaining the pressure for the finalisation of the Code of Conduct (CoC), and in the ASEAN Outlook for Indo-Pacific (AOIP) annoys China, pointed out Dr Pradhan. This week, Malaysia summoned the Chinese envoy after Chinese vessels entered Kuala Lumpur’s territorial waters off the coast of Borneo.Tensions in the area have only increased since 2016 when the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected China’s nine-dash line and ruled that Beijing had no historic title over the South China Sea after the Philippines’s challenged Beijing’s claims and actions over the disputed waterway.Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte this week reiterated his call for unity in pursuing peace and stability in the South China Sea, saying that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) must "not allow those with diverging interests to make our efforts fail."In his remarks during the virtual 38th and 39th Asean Summits and Related Summits, Duterte said the regional bloc should pursue these initiatives in accordance with international law, including the 2016 arbitral award that invalidated China's expansive claim over the disputed waters.In 2016, the Philippines won a landmark arbitration ruling that dismissed China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea, acknowledging that islands and features in the West Philippine Sea that are being claimed by Beijing fall within Manila's exclusive economic zone. South China Sea is a strategic waterway for trade that is also believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits."We have come a long way in keeping the peace and promoting prosperity in our region. We must not allow those with diverging interests to make our efforts fail," Duterte said.Duterte reaffirmed the Philippines' commitment to help finalize an "effective and substantive" Code of Conduct (COC) in the disputed waters.He also urged countries to translate commitments into action as regards the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea.The DOC, inked on November 4, 2002, aims to exercise self-restraint and promote non-militarization within the South China Sea.On the other hand, the COC in the South China Sea intends to promote peace and stability in the busy waterway."Talks should not remain empty rhetoric. They should be translated into action to fortify the trust and confidence we have cultivated through the years. Acta non verba. Deeds, not words," Duterte said during his intervention at the 24th Asean-China Summit.In fact China's 'bullying' in South China Sea helped advance US-Vietnam ties, says ex envoy. The South China Sea plays a prominent role in the relationship between Vietnam and the United States, and bullying by China of its neighbour helped deepen relations, said the former US ambassador to Hanoi Ted Osius. In fact US Senators have introduced bill to sanction China over the South China Sea impasse. The bipartisan South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act will impose sanctions against Chinese individuals and entities that participate in Beijing’s attempts to "aggressively assert its expansive maritime and territorial claims" in the two seas, according to rubio.senate.gov, the website of Senator Marco Rubio. Rubio is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and an original co-sponsor of the legislation along with Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State Department Management. It was later co-sponsored by 14 senators. They first introduced it in Senate in May 2019, and re-submitted it in May this year.The US frequently accuses China of militarizing the South China Sea, bullying and coercing other countries in the region, and aggressively advancing its extensive claims the US argues are not supported by international law. In turn, China has worked to cast the US as the destabilizing military presence in the South China Sea. Currently, international maritime activities are governed by an international agreement called the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of which China, India and over a hundred other countries are signatories (the US, significantly, is not). Accordingly, states have the right to implement territorial rights up to 12 nautical miles into the sea. The UNCLOS also states that all vessels have the right of “innocent passage” through this region – China’s new law violates this. It is therefore imperative that India and other powers strengthen international cooperation to promote peaceful settlement of disputes, including those in SCS.