US urged to develop Nat’l Strategy for South China Sea

Posted to the Manila Bulletin (Apr 28): US urged to develop Nat’l Strategy for South China Sea

The United States should develop and promulgate a National Strategy for the South China Sea (NSSCS) as part of its ongoing efforts to counter Chinese aggression in the region and to resolve the disputes there in a peaceful manner.

This, according to one of the most influential conservative research organizations in the US, is an effective means of producing the necessary shift in America’s current posture in the South China Sea “from one of vigilant maintenance of the status quo to a position that will foster the peaceful management and ultimately permanent resolution of issues affecting US navigational rights and interests in the region.”

Specifically, senior security research analysts at the Heritage Foundation said such a national strategy should contain the official position of the US regarding the nature of the disputed land features in the South China Sea.

The US “no longer has the luxury of staying out of South China Sea sovereignty disputes”" since control of South China Sea land features “is a zero-sum game,” they stressed.

“Each coral reef and atoll controlled by China is an additional land feature from which China may make excessive claims and that may serve as a justification to disrupt lawful US military activities, including survey and intelligence operations.” the Heritage Foundation pointed out. “To continue to avoid the sovereignty issue, politically sensitive though it is, irresponsibly risks expansion of Chinese control over the South China Sea.”

The NSSCS should also underscore US policy on military activities in the South China Sea.

“A legal memorandum emphasizing the US position on its navigational rights in the South China Sea would help to further clarify the matter,” analysts at the Foundation said.

The NSSCS must likewise contain a legal review of and rejoinder to China’s excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea, including its nine-dash-line map and its domestic legislation purporting to restrict military activities within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The Washington DC-based think tank noted that the US issues regular reports on various aspects of the law of the sea in regard to maritime claims made by foreign nations. In fact, since 1970, the US State Department has published more than 130 reports regarding straight baselines, maritime and continental shelf borders, and territorial sea claims.

This legal review should be published separately as a “Limits in the Seas” report and submitted to the United Nations Law of the Sea Bulletin for publication.

An affirmation of US “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea should also be included in the NSSCS.

The Foundation said more frequent naval assertions would signal that the US is elevating the issue beyond “business as usual” in the South China Sea.

“Optimally, the US should conduct such operations with one or more allies in the region, such as Australia and Japan, that have the naval capabilities to participate,” it stressed. “Vietnam and the Philippines, whose fishing and commercial survey activities have been repeatedly interfered with by China, may also be willing to engage in joint operations.”

Finally, the NSSCS should contain a statement of support for the Philippines in its arbitration case against China.

“The United States should not remain a neutral observer in the arbitration case filed by the Philippines against China,” analysts at the Foundation said. “A decision in arbitration in favor of the Philippines, discrediting the nine-dash line, would advance US interests.”

Relative to this, the Heritage Foundation said the US should urge other nations—particularly Vietnam and Malaysia and also Brunei and Indonesia—to openly support the Philippines and to initiate arbitration cases of their own against China on the same legal grounds.

“Since these nations have chosen to be party to UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Seas) , they may as well take advantage of its dispute resolution process to attempt to peacefully resolve the legality of China’s excessive claims,” said the Foundation. “China will undoubtedly refuse to arbitrate with any nation, which should further isolate it from other South China Sea nations.”

And since several South China Sea nations other than China have made excessive maritime claims, including claims restricting access to their territorial sea and the exercise of military activities in their EEZs, the Heritage Foundation said the US needs to convince its friends and allies in the region to bring their domestic law and practice into compliance with the law of the sea because such claims permit China to take the position that it is acting in the same manner as its neighbors.

“The United States should, through bilateral negotiations, work with South China Sea nations to abandon their excessive claims and thereby present a united legal front to China,” the Foundation said. “US assistance to these nations to resolve any outstanding maritime boundary issues would also be helpful.”

America should also preempt potentially harmful provisions of an South China Sea “code of conduct” which the member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have been negotiating for many years.

The Foundation said firm legal position regarding military activities in the EEZ will make clear that the US will not consent to a code of conduct that violates either customary international law or UNCLOS.

Specifically, the NSSCS should note that any code of conduct that purports to restrict or prohibit military activities in the South China Sea or in any EEZ is unacceptable and that the US will not comply with any such restriction, it added.

Although there is no guarantee that China will alter its behavior for the better if the US shifts its policies in the manner recommended by analysts at the Heritage Foundation, which was ranked fifth in Foreign Policy magazine’s 2009 list of the nation’s most influential think tanks, the release of an NSSCS may precipitate additional Chinese aggression in the short term.

“These policy recommendations are not meant to create an immediate beneficial effect, but instead are designed to shape the conditions in the South China Sea so that the festering disputes may be peacefully and definitively resolved in the mid-to-long term,” the Foundation emphasized.

Developing national security strategy documents regarding strategic regions is nothing new for the US, it pointed out. For instance, the Foundation noted that the Obama Administration already released two strategy documents in the past relating to US interests in the Arctic.

“Whether in the Asia–Pacific or another strategic region, it is hardly unprecedented that the United States should promulgate a comprehensive policy statement regarding its strategic interests in the South China Sea,” it said.

http://www.mb.com.ph/us-urged-to-develop-natl-strategy-for-south-china-sea/