MANILA, Philippines - The Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank influential with US presidents, said Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea must be challenged explicitly, as silence on the reported harassment of a US military vessel by Chinese ships leaves neighboring countries with seemingly no options but to acquiesce.
The group cited the US government’s response to the Chinese vessels that reportedly harassed the USNS Impeccable in international waters off the coast of Hainan Island, forcing it to take emergency defensive maneuvers.
According to press reports, five Chinese ships harassed the USNS Impeccable on March 8 in international waters 75 miles off the coast of China’s Hainan Island, at one point forcing it to take emergency measures to evade a collision.
The US Defense Department said the incident was only the latest of several “increasingly aggressive” events over the past week.
Walter Lohman, director and senior research fellow for Southeast Asia in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, in his policy research “Staring Down Chinese Diplomacy,” said Washington responded to the Impeccable incident with strong statements about US rights in international waters “but they would do well to also internalize the lesson here.”
“The Chinese are not going to be lured away from their sovereign claims in the South China Sea or anywhere else by indirection or abstraction. Their claims must be challenged, not only by quietly carrying out naval operations in international waters, but explicitly,” Lohman said.
“Observers in the region are well aware of Chinese claims on Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the Senkakus. Short of the occasional forced public challenge – such as the one that just occurred near Hainan – silence can be perceived as consent. And the appearance of American acceptance leaves the more vulnerable of China’s neighbors with seemingly no options but to acquiesce,” he added.
China claimed that the Impeccable was in their waters and focused their response on what they claim was their 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
But Lohman said this claim is problematic for several reasons, noting that the US Navy had a right to be where it was off the coast of Hainan.
Lohman said the Chinese draw straight lines to their interests and although they understand abstractions like becoming a “responsible stakeholder” well enough, they do not value them.
“To some well-meaning Americans the international law is a way to peacefully settle conflict, but to Chinese diplomats, it’s a tool to assert their pre-existing aggressive claims,” he said.
“The US must be engaged with China. China is too big to ignore. But let’s keep our eyes open. At this point in history, and for the foreseeable future, China’s vision is too narrow to leverage the value of responsible stakeholderhood,” he said.
Only weeks ago, Lohman said the Obama administration was heralding the resumption of defense talks as the start of a new era in US-China military relations. But he said the problem is that military contacts are an American priority, not a Chinese one. Since canceling them in October – over US arms sales to Taiwan – the Chinese have been cool to requests to resume.
Their reserve held all the way through the visit of the American delegation to Beijing in February. The official American response to the talks bordered on effusive.
By contrast, the head of the Chinese delegation began by declaring “China-US military relations remain in a difficult period. We expect the US side to take concrete measures for the resumption and development of our military ties.”
US support on Spratlys claim vital
Lohman said in his policy research dated Feb. 26 that the US should unequivocally support the right of the Philippines to stake its claims in the South China Sea and it cannot remain neutral in this territorial dispute that is a bigger problem for Washington and all who rely on American leadership in the Asia-Pacific.
In his policy research “Spratly Islands: The Challenge to US Leadership in the South China Sea, ” he said American support in the territorial dispute is needed.
Lohman cited the US-Philippines 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, noting that it is one of the greatest values of American security treaties in peacetime and it clearly shows where American loyalties lie.
He said all legalities aside, at some level, any claim to territory should have to pass a common sense test.
Lohman said, “Claiming sovereignty over 648,000 square miles of sea bordering on eight countries is absolutely untenable. And the US ought to say so.”
He pointed that playing on the ambiguities in the American position and on weaknesses plaguing perceptions of its commitment to the region, the Chinese are content to slowly turn up the heat on the South China Sea and silence abets their aspirations.
“Left unchallenged, the Chinese claim to the South China Sea could one day leave the American Pacific Fleet asking Chinese permission to conduct routine operations. If the Chinese claims calcify at a pace similar to the development of their navy, in another 10 years, the US will have a real crisis on its hands,” he added.
Lohman said China’s claim over the Spratly Islands is “unreasonable” and expansive, noting that the Kalayaan Islands are 1,000 nautical miles away from China. By contrast, the province of Palawan is roughly 230 miles away.
He said the distance between China and the territory it is claiming is apparently of no concern to Beijing because the Chinese claim not only the Spratlys, but also 80 percent of the South China Sea. In support of such a massive claim, the Chinese reference 2,000-year-old maps and an imaginative reading of the Law of the Sea Treaty.
Lohman said, “The Philippines has done the world a great favor by reminding it of Chinese ambitions.”
Resurrecting the Sabah claim
Meanwhile, the newly approved Baselines Law has reiterated the country’s Sabah and other historical claims as provided for in the Constitution, according to Henry Bensurto, secretary-general of the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs.
Bensurto said the Baselines Law has officially drawn the territory of the country and at the same time announced to the international community its pending claims on Sabah and other islands in the South China Sea.
Speaking at the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo forum, Bensurto said the approval of the new law will allow the Philippines to fully enforce its laws on the 300-mile expanded maritime zone, which in the past was considered high seas or international sea.
He explained that although the Kalayaan Islands and the Scarborough shoals cannot be found within the lines drawn in the baselines law, those territories are still considered as a regime of islands.
He said the claim of the Philippines on the two-island group remains and will be a subject for negotiation with other claimant countries, including China.
Bensurto also said that the baselines law, which will be submitted to the United Nations in compliance with the UNCLOS, has overlapped with the baselines laws of China, Malaysia, Vietnam Japan, Indonesia, and Palau, particularly on the 300-mile expanded maritime zones.
He said UNCLOS provides that the issue on the overlapping of baseline laws will be subject to negotiations by conflicting countries before the issue is elevated to the International Court of Justice.
“What is important is that the Philippines has already put on official records at the UN its baseline territory and the next step is to talk with its neighbors on the overlapping issue,” he said. – With Perseus Echeminada