UN SPECIAL POLITICAL

AND DECOLONIZATION
COMMITTEE

AGENDAS: A) CHINAS EXPANSIONIST POLICY

IN EAST ASIA
B) THE CRIMEAN CRISIS

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 Table of contents

Topics
Chinas Expansionist policy
.Pg. 4
Senkaku Islands Dispute
Pg. 4
South China Sea
Pg. 5
The Tibet Issue
Pg. 6
Indo China Relations
...Pg.7
International response
pg. 7
The Crimean Crisis
...pg. 9
History
pg.9
Minsk Agreement
.Pg.10
Crimean Referendum
.Pg.12
Western response and implications
..Pg.13
Key questions
.Pg.16

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Dear Delegates,

We welcome you all to the Government Law College Model

United Nations 2015. Here at GLCMUN we hope to give all our
delegates an occasion to develop their knowledge of different
arenas of international affairs.
The Special Political and Decolonization Committee (SPECPOL),
originally the Special Committee on Decolonization, is the
Fourth Committee of the General Assembly.
It has been integral in promoting social, economic, political
and educational progress in the Territories, to assist in
developing appropriate forms of self-government and to take
into account the political aspirations and stages of
development and advancement of each Territory.
SPECPOL has indeed played a special role: since the inception
of the UN, more than 80 former colonies have gained
independence. SPECPOL, through its numerous resolutions and
debate, has promoted the self-determination of states and
decolonization efforts. Indeed, in 1960, the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples
stated that all people have a right to self-determination and
proclaimed that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and
unconditional end.
The two agendas of the Crimean Crisis as well as Chinas
expansionist actions, thus, call for an intensive discussion

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followed by some feasible solutions to prevent further menace.
Delegates, it is your task to deliberate on measures for future
improvement and the accomplishment of universal progress.
Best Regards,
GLCMUN Research Team.

A) CHINAS EXPANSIONIST POLICY IN EAST

ASIA

INTRODUCTION
Various activities of the Peoples Republic of China have been
traced recently which clearly state the expansionist intentions
of the country. This includes the inclusion of the entire South
China Sea under Chinese administrative control and even the
incorporation of South China Sea in the passport maps of China.
Chinas air defence identification zone [ADIZ] in the East China
Sea highlights Chinas claims for maritime exclusive economic
zone.
Beijing has constantly dodged or procrastinated the
mediation efforts. PRC had also condemned the effort made by
Philippines with regard to submit the legality of Chinas claims
of arbitration in the light of the United Nations Law of the Sea
Treaty. Thus the clear efforts of PRC to reinforce its economic,
administrative, diplomatic and military dominance over the
East China Sea as well as several other regions is a potential
threat which may culminate into undesirable effects and
requires a viable an immediate viable solution.

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Some of these significant events are as follows :
a) Senkaku Islands Dispute

The row revolves around 8 uninhabited and rocky islands

controlled by Japan. The disputed East China Sea chain consists
of five small islands and three rocks

They have a total area of about 7 sq. km.and lie northeast of

Taiwan, east of the Chinese mainland and south-west of Japan's
southernmost prefecture, Okinawa.

Due to their proximity to important shipping lanes , potential oil

and gas reserves and their ideal environment for developing
fishing grounds, they have been in limelight among the fellow
countries. They are also in a strategically significant position,
amid rising competition between the US and China for military
primacy in the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan's claim : In the 19th century, Japan had surveyed the

islands for about 10 years and determined over time that they
are uninhabited . On 14 January 1895 Japan erected a
sovereignty marker and formally incorporated the islands into
Japanese territory. After World War Two, Japan relinquished
claims to a number of territories and islands, including Taiwan
in the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco. These islands, however,
came under US trusteeship and were returned to Japan in 1971
under the Okinawa reversion deal.

China says that the islands have been part of its territory since
ancient times, serving as important fishing grounds
administered by the province of Taiwan.

When Taiwan was returned in the Treaty of San Francisco, China

says the islands should have been returned too. Beijing says
Taiwan's Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek did not raise the
issue, even when the islands were named in the later Okinawa
reversion deal, because he depended on the US for support 1.
Separately, Taiwan also claims the islands.

1 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11341139

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The dispute has been silent over the years. But in April 2012, a
fresh booming of issue was succeeded after outspoken right-
wing Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said he would use public
money to buy the islands from their private Japanese owner.
The Japanese government reached a deal to buy three of the
islands from the owner in a move to block Mr Ishihara's more
provocative plan.

This triggered public and diplomatic protests in China. Since

then, Chinese government ships regularly sailed in and out of
what Japan claims to be its territorial waters around the islands.

In November 2013, China also announced the creation of a new

air-defence identification zone, which would require any aircraft
in the zone - which covers the islands - to comply with rules laid
down by Beijing.

Japan labelled the move a "unilateral escalation" and said it

would ignore it, as did the US.

b) South China Sea

China further has highlighted its expansionist intentions by

releasing the vertical map of China in June 2014, which
clearly incorporates the islands of south china sea as a
national property of PRC . This has in turn strained its
relations with Vietnam and Phillipines , which assert their
claim on these islands as well. The map clearly shows two
large clusters of islands, the Paracels and the Spratlys, within
the Chinese territory. China, Vietnam and Taiwan all claim the
Paracels , while six governments have overlapping claims to
the Spratlys. Installation of Chinese oil rigs in the waters
claimed by both Beijing and Hanoi has accelerated the anti -
Chinese violence in Vietnam.

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c) The Tibet Issue

Tibet has been the most glaringly deplorable example of the

Chinese indiscriminate expansion since 1950, when Chinese
troops were deployed to claim this region. Later on, the 14 th
Dalai Lama after an unsuccessful anti-Chinese uprising fled to
India forming a government in exile. The presence of the Dalai
Lama and his 120,000 followers in India since he fled to India in
1959, is a constant source of friction.
China almost lost Tibet to British influence and perhaps would
have if the British had been willing and able to expand their
colonial administration of India to include Tibet. Tibet might
then have achieved independence with the withdrawal of the
British from India. China did lose its claim to Outer Mongolia to
the Russians, at the same time that the British were intriguing
in Tibet, and Outer Mongolia eventually emerged as an
independent state. After the British penetration of Tibet in
1904, and the 1905 Chinese invasion of eastern Tibet in
response, Tibets traditional Cho-Yon, or Priest-Patron,
relationship with China could no longer exist. Tibet had either to
achieve independence by means of British patronage or fall
victim to Chinese ambitions to impose full Chinese sovereignty
over Tibet. The Chinese were ultimately successful, partially, at
least, due to the fact that the British were unwilling to
recognize or support Tibetan independence. Instead, the British

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made an unsuccessful attempt to perpetuate an archaic and
vaguely defined status of Tibetan autonomy under an equally
indefinable Chinese suzerainty. Autonomy, in the Tibetan
case as in many others, proved to be incompatible with the
prerogatives of the modern centralized state.
In The 1951 17-Point Agreement, made Tibet unambiguously a
part of China, allowed for extensive autonomy, including the
preservation of the Tibetan Government with the Dalai Lama at
its head, and of virtually all other Tibetan institutions including
the monastic system. However, this document was entirely
contradictory in that it provided for the establishment of a
Chinese military administration of Tibet and for various
reforms, to be undertaken by the Tibetan people themselves,
ultimately leading to the implementation of national regional
autonomy in Tibet. Over the years several developments have
been observed but none of which have facilitated the Tibetan
people to secure their sovereignty2.The Tibet China dispute has
differently affected the Indo Chinese relations.

d) Indo-China Relations.
Since the 1962 war relations have remained sour between India
and China over the still disputed 3,500 km frontier. The
arbitrary incorporation of Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese maps
has elevated passport issues as well as strained the trade
relations of the two Asian countries.

International Response
With the increasing economic and political might of china US
has preferred to undertake its containment policy in china. It
has time and again criticized all the expansionist actions of
China. Against the infinitely growing Asian giant US has
safeguarded itself through its containment policy.

2 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28322355

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 The incorporation of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army
(PLA) into the RIMPAC multilateral military exercises, with no
promise of reciprocal access for the U.S. military to Chinese
exercises, makes the U.S. appear eager to engage Beijing.
Russia and the Peoples Republic of China have been viewed
as the potential threats by the Western countries, while, the
countries suffering the anguish yearn time and again against
these exploitative expansionist policies.

Key Questions
Is the Chinese military build-up in the South China Sea
an expansionist policy or just to buttress its claim to the
disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands?

What is more relevant in context of determining

sovereignty of a nation the historical background or the
will of the inhabitants?

How can the arbitrary inclusion of certain territories in

the maps of the Peoples Republic of China which can
encourage other powerful nations to manifest their
arbitrary policies be prevented as well as deciphered in
the light of the claims by other nations?

What can be the practical momentary solution for the

Tibet issue upholding the Human Rights of the Tibetan
people?

What can be a justified solution for Philippines , which

has time and again condemned these oppressive
policies as well as asked for international aid?

Can only the Western actions restrain the expansionist

policies of China?

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 B)THE CRIMEAN CRISIS

HISTORY
Crimea was absorbed into the Russian empire along with most
of ethnic Ukrainian territory by Catherine the Great in the 18th
century. Russia's Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol was
founded soon afterwards. More than half a million people were
killed in the Crimean War of 1853-56 between Russia and the
Ottoman Empire, which was backed by Britain and France. The
conflict reshaped Europe and paved the way for World War One.
In 1921, the peninsula, then populated mainly by Muslim Tatars,
became part of the Soviet Union. The Tatars who were the

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largely Turkic Muslim people, inhabited the Crimean peninsula
for centuries were deported en masse by Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin at the end of World War Two for alleged collaboration with
the Nazis3.

The Minsk Agreement4 of 1991 Belarus, the Russian federation

and Ukraine agreed to form commonwealth of independent
states and they collectively recognized the inviolability of the
existing states. Also in the Budapest memorandum of 1994
Ukraine and the other two newly created states took to
eliminate all nuclear weapons. Crimea only became part of
Ukraine when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave the
peninsula to his native land in 1954. This hardly mattered until
the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 and Crimea ended up in an
independent Ukraine. Despite that, nearly 60 percent of its
population of 2 million identify themselves as Russians. Since
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there have been
periodic political clashes between over its status between
Moscow and Kiev.

The crisis was headed by the competition between the EU and

Russia for the future of the geo-economic location of Ukraine.
The roots of the crisis lie in the 2008 war between Russia and
Georgia which led to the possibility of enlargement of the North
Atlantic Treaty organization for both. Through its flagship
project of a customs union in 2009 and an establishment of a
3Crimeas Relation to Russia through History Frdric Steputat, Forum Ost-West,
M. Phil. (History and
Internationalrelations)http://www.forumostwest.ch/pdf/Dokumente/Crimea
%20Relation%20to%20Russia_2.pdf

4 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/belarus/by_appnb.html

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Eurasian Economic Union in May 2014; the Russian federation
wanted to attract Ukraine towards these lucrative economic
options. Russia through these offers wanted to deter Ukraine
from joining the EU to stop the influence of the western policies
and their intervention in matters. However, these Russia led
community would give certain benefits to Russia and better
bargaining position with regard to countrys big continental
neighbours- China to the east and EU to the west 5

Yanukovych, the then Ukrainian President in consideration with

the pressure from the Russian federation in form of trade
barriers showed them what they could lose if they endeavoured
to join the EU and later in the form of an aid package , what it
would gain if it made the right choice.

As result of this Yanukovych in November 2013 suddenly

suspended a political and economic association agreement that
Kiev had been due to sign with EU 6. This decision led to mass
protests in Central Kiev. To those people the EU association
appeared as a way out of this undignified situation, and the
unforeseen and unexpected closure of that opportunity
produced a painful and powerful shock. This civic protest was
later on called to be known as the Maidan and was then joined
by the nationalists groups, hailing mainly from Western
Ukraine.

With these events unfolding in Ukraine ,on 13 March it was

reported that new Russian military maneuvers involving some
5 http://1997-2001.state.gov/www/regions/eur/9702nato_report.html

6 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/17/us-ukraine-timeline-
idUSBRE9BG10N20131217

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8,000 troops, and including artillery such as rocket launchers
and anti-tank weapons, were taking place near the Ukrainian
border. The Russian government said that the exercises would
continue until the end of March 11 7. This action had two goals
respectively, the first to make Crimea off limits to the new post
Yanukovych authorities in Kiev. This was done by the earlier
mentioned activities which physically insulated the Crimean
peninsula from the mainland Ukraine.

Crimean Referendum

Russia also encouraged those elements to hold a referendum

on Crimeas status and pursued an all-out campaign in favour
of Crimeas reunification with Russia. Two days later, a treaty
was signed in Moscow to incorporate Crimea and the city of
Sevastopol into Russia. Later in a United Nations General
Assembly vote on the Crimean referendum in late March, 100
nations refused to recognize the outcome of the aforesaid
treaty, against only eleven that did8. Secondly, their objective
was to achieve a new federal settlement in Ukraine , which
would envision complete domination of the country by Kiev and
western Ukraine and thus make any move toward NATO
structurally impossible.

7 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/02/us-ukraine-crisis-
idUSBREA1Q1E820140302

8 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/03/un-general-assembly-calls-
crimea-vote-illegal-2014327179033856.html

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However, what the Russians envisioned did not materialize
physically. The hope that predominantly Russian-speaking
Novorossia, New Russia encompassing Ukraines entire south-
east, would break away from the new revolutionary authorities
and form a federation, did not materialize. Only Donetsk and
Luhansk held referendums in support of regional sovereignty 9.

The key cities of Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv,

Odessa, and Zaporizhia, however, remained under the central
governments control. The interim government launched an
antiterrorist operation which led to numerous causalities on
both sides , Moscow gave the militants support ,but did not
recognize the Maidan backed government as legitimate
.Moscow was able to garner far more attention by sending
forces to Ukraine border for military drills which looked like a
preparation for invasion. The idea was to deter Kiev from going
too hard against its opponents in eastern Ukraine and to raise
the stakes in Washington by signifying Russias tenacity to
defend its vital interests.

WESTERN RESPONSE AND IMPLICATIONS

The Crimean crisis when it came was thus not an isolated spat
or Strategic misunderstanding, but rather the last straw for
both sides. The failure to achieve an acceptable post-Cold war
settlement produced an unanchored between the west and
Russia. Moscows policies met with immediate, strong negative
reaction from the United States and its allies.

9 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/12/us-ukraine-crisis-
idUSBREA400LI20140512

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Seen as an aggressor, Russia was effectively expelled from the
G8 group of leading industrialized nations, which returned to
being the G7. The Russian delegates had to suspend their
participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe and its accession process to the Organization for the
Economic Cooperation and Development was put on hold 10.

The United States led its allies in imposing sanctions against

Russian officials, companies and potentially whole sectors of
industries. Successive waves of sanctions, in efforts to isolate
Russia politically, immediately caused a deep plunge of the
Russian stock market, a massive capital flight out of Russia, and
a further weakening of the rubble. These sanctions also tend to
leave a huge impact on the energy considerations from Russia
and even though the energy relationship between Russia and
Europe is too vital to many EU economies for it to be wound
down immediately, there is now a much stronger trend toward
energy diversification away from Russia.

Now the implications are expected to be long lasting especially

for Ukraine whose political and economic conditions are
worsening .The crisis has led Russia to openly challenge the
post Cold war post Soviet settlement in Europe, which Putin
has now openly come to reject. With Crimea back in its hands,
Russia has made a big step toward restoring its dominance in
the Black Sea area. Rather than just a small stretch of the seas
eastern shoreline, Russia now occupies the strategically
strongest position in the area. By contrast, the Turkish Navy,
which became the strongest force in the Black Sea after the
10 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26725659

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dissolution of the Soviet Union, has lost its primacy. Ukraine is
likely to be unstable for a relatively long time. Regional
insurgency can expand into multiparty civil war. Even if this
that scenario is driven away social turmoil and political tussle
will be difficult to avoid. The conflict in Ukraine has implications
for other post-Soviet regions.

The crisis affects neighbouring Moldova, a country that

effectively broke up in 1990 when the region of Transnistria
became de facto independent even before Moldova gained
independence from the Soviet Union. Landlocked Transnistria
has long been openly seeking integration with Russia. However,
these entities depend on the Ukrainian Black Sea port of
Odessa for communications with Russia, and Kievs assertion of
control there following May 2014 clashes between pro- and
anti-Russian demonstrators that involved a deadly public
building fire shuts off that route.

Georgia, another signatory of an EU association agreement,

has so far remained unaffected directly by the Ukraine crisis.
Belarus and Kazakhstan, have used the Crisis to stress their
own sovereignty. At the UN, Belarus voted with Russia to
endorse the annexation of Crimea 11, and Minsk hosted Russian
warplanes to counter increased NATO deployments and activity
in Poland and the Baltic states. Kazakhstan, unlike Belarus,
abstained in the UN vote on Crimea.

11 General Assembly Adopts Resolution Calling upon States Not to Recognize

Changes in Status of Crimea Region 27 MARCH 2014,
http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/ga11493.doc.htm

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In central Europe, Poland has toughened its stand on Russian
intervention in Crimea. For Warsaw, the Ukraine crisis has
become a test of maturity and leadership. Poland is emerging
as one of the EUs leading member states when it comes to the
new Eastern Europe and Russia.

Faced with an increasingly hostile West, Russia is visibly turning

east. This geopolitical rebalancing of the country had been
under way since 2012, but it accelerated in early 2014. Putins
most important visit since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis
was in May 2014 to Shanghai, where Gazprom signed a thirty-
year gas contract worth $400 billion12. Putin is scheduled to
visit Japan later in 2014 in an effort to keep Russias technology
and investment channel to the country open. And Moscow is
expected to strengthen ties with India, particularly in the
defence technology sphere, under the leadership of newly
elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Putin publicly praised
both India and China for their restraint during the Ukraine
crisis.

MALAYSIA PLANE CRASH

This tragic incident embodied the most negative repercussions

of this tussle. Malaysia Plane, Boieng 777, flying from
Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur passing through East Ukrainian
area came down near the city of Donetsk, approximately killing

12 http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/05/17/russia-china-gas-
idINL6N0O30B420140517

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295 people aboard. Ukraine in turn blamed Russia of shooting
Ukrainian fighter jet13.

China abstained during the UN General Assembly vote on

Crimea. However, China is most vehemently opposed to regime
change and interference in other countries internal affairs.
Beijing abhors Maidan-style revolutions, which remind its
leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and is
suspicious of U.S.-supported democracy programs. Although
Moscows consent is not a given, and the Russia-China
relationship is not about to evolve into a military alliance, the
alignment between the two powers is becoming closer.

In the Arctic, all of Russias neighbours are NATO member

states. In the middle of the Crimea event, Russian forces
exercised in the Arctic Ocean. Of Russias Arctic neighbours,
Canada, with a larger and powerful Ukrainian movement and
already deeply suspicious of Moscows policies in the region,
has gone extreme, after the United States, in condemning and
sanctioning Russia. Elements of militarization of the area,
particularly on the Russian side, are already evident.

KEY QUESTIONS

Do the actions of Russia signify an expansionist motive

or are just aimed at complicating a historical dispute?

13 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/17/us-ukraine-crash-airplane-
idUSKBN0FM1TU20140717

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 In the light of the history as well as the present
situation what should be the status of Crimea?
What viable actions can the UN undertake to stop the
menace over this issue?
What solutions would suffice the prevention of violent
repercussions arising out of this issue like the Malaysia
plane tragedy?
Is the intervention by other states required and further
justified as well as to what extent?
Solution for the military intervention by Russia and to
safeguard the sovereignty of Ukraine?
With the involvement of international entities what are
the possible future impacts as well as how can the UN
prevent those?

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