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Analysis: China's nine-dashed line in South China Sea By David Lague Posted 2012/05/25 at 12:12 am EDT HONG KONG, May 25, 2012 (Reuters) — Alongside an armada of paramilitary patrol vessels and fishingboats, China has fired off a barrage of historical records toreinforce its claim over a disputed shoal near the Philippines inthe South China Sea. While this propaganda broadside makes it clear Beijing will take atough line with Manila as a standoff over Scarborough Shoalcontinues into a seventh week, the exact legal justification forChina's claim and the full extent of the territory affected remainuncertain, according to experts in maritime law. Like most of its claims to vast expanses of the resource-rich andstrategically important South China Sea, Beijing prefers to remainambiguous about the details, they say. This allows the ruling Communist Party to demonstrate to anincreasingly nationalistic domestic audience that it can defendChina's right to control a swathe of ocean territory. And, it avoids further inflaming tensions with neighbors who arealready apprehensive about China's growing military power andterritorial ambition. "This ambiguity serves China's domestic purpose which is tosafeguard the government's legitimacy and satisfy domestic publicopinion," said Sun Yun, a Washington D.C.-based China foreignpolicy expert and a former analyst for the International CrisisGroup in Beijing. POTENTIAL FLASHPOINT Rival claims to territory in the South China Sea are one of thebiggest potential flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific region. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei allhave territorial claims across a waterway that provides 10 per centof the global fisheries catch and carries $5 trillion in ship-bornetrade. Half the world's shipping tonnage traverses its sea lanes. The United States, which claims national interests in the SouthChina Sea, recently completed naval exercises with the Philippinesnear Scarborough Shoal. It is stepping up its military presence inthe region as part of a strategic "pivot" towards Asia after morethan a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The acrimonious confrontation over Scarborough Shoal, known asHuangyan Island in Chinese, began last month when Beijing orderedits civilian patrol vessels to stop the Philippines arrestingChinese fisherman working in the disputed area. Beijing and Manila both claim sovereignty over the group of rocks,reefs and small islands about 220 km (132 miles) from thePhilippines. The Philippines says the shoal falls within its 200 nautical mileExclusive Economic Zone(EEZ), giving it the right to exploit thenatural resources in this area. SONG DYNASTY RECORDS In a concerted response from Beijing, official governmentspokesmen, senior diplomats and reports carried by influentialstate-controlled media outlets have drawn on the histories ofearlier dynasties to rebut Manila's claim. They say the records show China's sailors discovered HuangyanIsland 2,000 years ago and cite extensive records of visits,mapping expeditions and habitation of the shoal from the SongDynasty (960-1279 AD) right through to the modern period. To back up these arguments, China has also deployed some of itsmost advanced paramilitary patrol vessels to the shoal in acalibrated show of strength, for now keeping its increasinglypowerful navy at a distance. A Philippines government spokesman said on Wednesday China hadalmost 100 Chinese vessels at the shoal, including four governmentpatrol ships. Earlier, Manila demanded that all Chinese vesselsleave the area. China's Foreign Ministry responded on Wednesday that only 20Chinese fishing boats were in the area, a normal number for thistime of the year, and they were operating in accordance withChinese law. NINE-DASH LINE Maritime lawyers note Beijing routinely outlines the scope of itsclaims with reference to the so-called nine-dashed line that takesin about 90 percent of the 3.5 million square kilometer South ChinaSea on Chinese maps. This vague boundary was first officially published on a map byChina's Nationalist government in 1947 and has been included insubsequent maps issued under Communist rule. While Beijing has no difficulty in producing historical evidence tosupport its territorial links to many islands and reefs, lessmaterial is available to show how it arrived at the nine-dashedline. In a September, 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks,the U.S. Embassy in Beijing reported that a senior Chinesegovernment maritime law expert, Yin Wenqiang, had "admitted" he wasunaware of the historical basis for the nine dashes. In a March, 2008 cable, the embassy reported that a senior Chinesediplomat, Zheng Zhenhua, had handed over a written statement whenasked about the scope of this boundary. "The dotted line of the South China Sea indicates the sovereigntyof China over the islands in the South China Sea since ancienttimes and demonstrates the long-standing claims and jurisdictionpractice over the waters of the South China Sea," the statementsaid, the embassy reported. Scarborough Shoal falls within the nine-dashed line, as do theParacel and Spratly Islands, the two most important disputed islandgroups in the South China Sea. LAW OF THE SEA TREATY China insists it has sovereignty over both these groups but it hasyet to specify how much of the rest of the territory within thenine-dashed line it intends to claim. One reason suggested for this lack of clarity is that China, likeall of the other claimants except Taiwan, is a signatory to the1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). If Beijing defined its claim to conform with the provisions of thistreaty, it would almost certainly reduce the scope of Chineseterritory and expose the government to criticism from vocalnationalists. Alternatively, if Beijing was to maximize the extent of its claimto include all or most of the territory within the nine-dashedline, it would be difficult to justify under international law andantagonize its neighbors. "Neither choice leads to a promising prospect," said Sun."Therefore sticking to the existing path is the most rational." This means that China is likely to remain vague, experts say,particularly during the current period of heightened politicalsensitivity ahead of a leadership transition scheduled for laterthis year. TRADITIONAL FISHING GROUNDS However, this lack of clarity doesn't mean China's claims overSouth China Sea territory have less merit than other claimants,experts say. In the case of Scarborough shoal, Beijing says the land is Chineseterritory and the waters surrounding the shoal have been China'straditional fishing grounds for generations. "This geographic proximity argument the Philippines is using is notnecessarily good in international law," says Sam Bateman, amaritime security researcher at Singapore's Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity. "If China can demonstrate sovereignty, its claim is as good as thePhilippines'." Under the provisions of UNCLOS, a nation with sovereignty over anisland can claim a surrounding 12-nautical mile territorial sea. UNCLOS defines an island as a natural land feature that remainsabove water at high tide. If the island is inhabitable, it is alsoentitled to an EEZ and possibly a continental shelf. JOINT EXPLOITATION However, Beijing has not claimed a territorial sea or an EEZ fromany of the features of Scarborough Shoal. Most maritime experts doubt China will agree to have any claimsover the South China Sea heard by the United Nation's InternationalTribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the body set up to rule ondisputes. Beijing's policy is to negotiate on the joint exploitation ofnatural resources in contested areas but rival claimants arereluctant to accept this formula because it could be seen asrecognition of China's sovereignty. Beijing is also increasingly wary about the Obama administration'smilitary "pivot" to Asia designed to counter China's growingpower," security experts say. They suggest Vietnam and the Philippines have already shown greaterwillingness to challenge China since the U.S. signaled a renewedinterest in the region. "They think they have the U.S. on side," said Bateman. (Editing by Bill Tarrant). We are high quality suppliers, our products such as SMD Diode Packages , SMD Transistor Packages Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits IC Carrier Tape.
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