The Territorial Dispute That Has Produced More Press Releases Than Resolutions Continues Its Productive Pattern
Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
South China Sea Update: Confrontation, Statement, Protest, Repeat
MANILA — The Philippines and China have had another confrontation in the South China Sea, specifically at or near the contested Second Thomas Shoal where a Philippine Navy vessel resupplying the BRP Sierra Madre has encountered Chinese Coast Guard interference, water cannon deployment, or some combination of the standard menu of assertive actions that the People’s Republic deploys in these waters to communicate its claims without quite triggering the military response that an outright attack would produce. Both governments have issued statements. The Philippine statement describes Chinese actions as illegal and provocative. The Chinese statement describes Philippine actions as illegal and provocative. Both statements are accurately representing their respective legal theories and are not primarily intended to produce agreement.
The South China Sea dispute has produced more press releases, diplomatic protests, judicial rulings, and academic papers than any comparable maritime dispute in recent history. The 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling found China’s “nine-dash line” claims incompatible with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. China described the ruling as “null and void” and has continued its activities in the area with the consistency of a government that has decided what the water is regardless of what the court said it was. The Philippines has the ruling. China has the structures it built on the reefs. Both sides have statements.
The US Dimension
The US-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement has expanded American access to Philippine military bases, some of which are strategically positioned relative to Taiwan and the South China Sea. China has noted this expansion with the displeasure appropriate to a regional power watching military infrastructure designed to complicate its options being built near its claimed territory. The Philippines has noted the American commitment with the reassurance appropriate to a smaller power facing a larger neighbor’s assertiveness. Managing territorial disputes through diplomatic statements is the international system’s primary tool when neither party is willing to either back down or escalate decisively. The statement-and-confrontation cycle continues. The water cannon is still deployed. The ruling is still null and void. The cycle is still productive of statements.