by Patrick M. Cronin
China’s multi-pronged strategy to advance its revisionist aims inwards the South Red People's Republic of China Sea—up as well as downward the conflict spectrum as well as across dissimilar domains—has taken on the grapheme of an attacking octopus, such that multiple simultaneous as well as independent lines of effort, capable of existence defeated individually, are combined to confuse as well as overwhelm a defender earlier they tin give notice formulate a coherent answer to the attacker either inwards exceptional or inwards aggregate. Much attending has been paid to the challenges posed past times China’s efforts at territorial aggrandizement via the physical reclamation of Earth on Chinese-occupied maritime features, as well as its pursuit of local military machine ascendancy by the expansion of anti-access/area denial envelopes, both through the construction of air, naval, as well as missile facilities on novel artificial isle structures as well as through the increased presence of high-end mobile naval forces of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. At its core, however, the decisive constituent as well as oculus of gravity of the combat directly transpiring inwards the South Red People's Republic of China Sea is the challenger betwixt 2 mutually exclusive legal systems of authority, namely the dominion of electrical flow international constabulary versus China’s continentalist revisionism.
On the i mitt is the prevailing regime, governed past times the foundational principles ofmare liberum (freedom of the seas) and la terre domine la mer (the Earth dominates the sea), equally codified inwards the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling inwards Philippines v. China. Under these bodies of jurisprudence, the contested areas of the southern South Red People's Republic of China Sea would move divided mainly betwixt the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Republic of Indonesia as well as Brunei, amongst a pocket-sized sliver of international waters betwixt them running through the Dangerous Ground. Opposing this international legal condition quo is China’s revisionist territorial ambition as well as its excogitation of maritime sovereignty that reflects the Chinese advantage betoken equally a continental power. With its pretenses to “indisputable sovereignty” over the large swath of the South Red People's Republic of China Sea that falls inside the Nine-Dash Line as well as its attempts to impose its ain domestic constabulary on mariners as well as aviators plying that vast expanse, Red People's Republic of China seeks to overturn mare liberum as well as la terre domine la mer to apply the principles of sovereignty on Earth to body of body of water areas that Red People's Republic of China covets. Red People's Republic of China thus views the South Red People's Republic of China Sea non equally a global common over which countries tin give notice assert express degrees of command based on their following Earth holdings, but equally “blue national soil” that tin give notice move claimed inwards its ain correct irrespective of nearby landmasses or other geographical realities.
In the sphere of international law, Red People's Republic of China has chosen to engage selectively inwards the internationally recognized regime. It rejected the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s standing to dominion on South Red People's Republic of China Sea cases similar Philippines v. Red People's Republic of China while simultaneously putting forrad legal briefs to advance its arguments nether recognized legal frameworks. Red People's Republic of China is also a political party to UNCLOS as well as thus recognizes the concept of the two-hundred-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone for itself (and indeed excessively asserts the correct to grant or decline permission to unusual ships wishing to navigate its EEZ) spell simultaneously violating its neighbors’ rights to EEZs past times insisting upon its ain extralegal “historic claim” of “indisputable sovereignty” over the expanse inside the Nine-Dash Line. Nevertheless, despite what has been inferred past times to a greater extent than or less observers to move at to the lowest degree a partial credence of the dominion of international constabulary at sea, Red People's Republic of China fundamentally seeks to defeat the prevailing legal authorities past times compelling de facto recognition of its ain extralegal authority, using its extensive maritime constabulary enforcement as well as paramilitary civilian presence to harass as well as intimidate the unarmed civilians of neighboring countries who attempt to do their rights nether international constabulary to acquit economical activities on the high seas or inwards their respective national EEZs.
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