The world is sinking, with the
emerge of the corona virus, in the present time our clocks looked like somebody
has put their speed onto 0.25x. But even in all these adversities, some
gigantic waves are stirring up the South China Sea.
In July United States navy
along with the Australian naval forces turned down the Chinese maritime claims
in the southern China Sea with the declining any territorial claims on the
undersea reefs.
To worsen the situation more
the US was continuously pressurizing the Australian defense forces to
participate in its freedom of navigation exercises
in the sea, which was provocative to China. So to simplify this matter we step
into the picture.
What is the Militarization of The Sea?
So back in the 1980s, the United Nations
signed and formalized the extended maritime resource claims in the
international laws. At that time, not more than six governments had
laid claim on the disputed Paracel and Spratly parts of the islands in the
South China Sea.
But as history tells, no sooner many
nations started to violate these laid guidelines for the sole purpose to extend
their maritime resource zone.
The water crossed head when in 2009;
Vietnam started ceasing the land of the islands that is claimed from the year
1970s.
Seeing it china also started the
reclamation process on a bigger scale on the land it occupied in the year of
1980s.
By 2016, these reclamations
had resulted in three military-grade, mid-ocean airfield operations
that sent shockwaves all around the world, the revolt was for the fact
that China is breaking its pledge not to militarize the islands and its
civilians.
So What are China’s Claims Over This?
The South China Sea covers a gigantic area
of almost 3.6 million square kilometers, for reference, it is double the size
of the Gulf of Mexico.
But the military advantage that is being
offered here is the quick release of modern warships which at their top speed
of 30 knots just take over 3 days to reach from the Northern edge of Taiwan to
the Southern edge of the Strait of Malacca.
The base at which China is making its
claims is based roughly on two major factors which include the international
law of the sea convention and also on the so-called nine-dash line.
Let's put some light on the nine-dash line,
well this is a mapped line which extends about 2,000 kilometers from the
Chinese mainland and encompasses over half of the sea.
In a historic decision that came in 2016,
the international tribunal of The Hague had ruled against part of China’s
claims in the sea in the case that was brought in by the Philippines.
But China in its part rejected the
authority of the tribunal over this matter along with the findings done in this
case.
In the latter statement, the tribunal
defines the statement for the south china sea which goes like “semi-enclosed sea, defined by the Law
of the Sea Convention”– a body of water tightly or largely contained by land
features.
According to this definition, the coastal
states around the defined sea should cooperate for everything from conservation
issues to commercial exploitation.
This law is important in the view that
maritime resources do not belong to any one individual, state, or nation but is
a shared resource among the states.
What does International Law Say About
it?
Well according to the international law of
the sea convention, all the states sharing the maritime resource have a right
to 200 nautical mile area also called the ‘exclusive economic zone’ for the
exploitation of the resources of both sea and seabed, as measured from their
respective land territories.
And in the case of multiple claimants or the overlapping of this exclusive economic zone as in the case of the south china sea, the claimant is obliged to negotiate with other respective claimants. Now the disagreement among the nations is the result that this tension arose.
The major three reasons behind this all
high tension drama are:
The argument, who owns the group of Paracel
and Spratly islands. Both China and Vietnam had put forward their ancient
proofs to justify their claims over the islands. Japan formerly occupied the
islands but later in a peace treaty recognized the claim of the republic of
china now Taiwan.
The second challenge is posed by Taiwan, as
earlier Taiwan was not considered as a state by most of the countries and is
therefore not a signatory to the Law of the Sea Convention, nor legally
entitled to claim any territory and its resources but conversely, Taiwan is the
primary occupant of one of the islands.
Third, there was a debate in international
law about which type of land territory can have rights to an exclusive economic
zone?
The Law of the Sea Convention clearly in
its term mandates that the land must be able to sustain human habitation on it,
but in 2016, the international tribunal in The Hague found no islands in the
Spratly group to be fit for the human habitation.
So keeping in mind all these facts there is
still a heated argument going on in the international forum and we hope that
this may resolve soon.
Written by -Yash Bundela
Edited by – Adrija Saha
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