ASEAN + CHINA

(Issue on the South China Sea)

ESTRELLA, Ellen Joy M.
FRANCISCO, Ma. Francesca DL
4ASN2
UNCLOS
United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea
No provisions on how to determine
sovereignty over offshore lands

UNCLOS
HOWEVER, some of the policies of the
UNCLOS are applicable to the South China Sea
Provisions on baselines
The regime of islands
Low-tide elevations
The Exclusive Economic Zone
The continental shelf
Maritime boundary delimitation
Dispute settlement

UNCLOS
The UNCLOS has already been universally
accepted
Nations that are concerned with the issue on
the South China Sea are all parties.
China
Vietnam
Malaysia
Philippines
Brunei
UNCLOS
It is a fundamental principle of international
law that a State cannot use its domestic law as
an excuse not to conform to its obligations
under an international treaty.

CHINAS HISTORICAL CLAIM
1998 Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone and
Continental Shelf contains a provision which
seems to be intended to preserve its historic
rights beyond its territorial sea.
Article 14 of Chinas 1998 Law provides that the
provisions of this Law shall not affect the historic
rights enjoyed by the Peoples Republic of China.
preserve certain historic rights in the South
China Sea.
CHINAS HISTORICAL CLAIM
outside Chinas national jurisdiction
China ratified UNCLOS in 1996
it gave up whatever historic rights it had to the natural
resources in areas that are now the EEZ or continental
shelf of other States.
Chinas legal relations with other Parties to UNCLOS
are now governed by UNCLOS, and China cannot use
its domestic law as an excuse not to fulfill its
international obligations under UNCLOS.
INTRODUCTION:
The South China Sea covers an area of
700,000 square kilometers, and some
200,000 square kilometers of waters are
settled.

China has declared indisputable
sovereignty over South China Sea islands
and their surrounding waters, but several
Southeast Asian countries, including
Vietnam and the Philippines, have made
competing claims.
INTRODUCTION:
Countries including Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia and the Philippines lay claim to parts of the
South China Sea, which contains important shipping
routes and is also believed to contain rich oil and gas
reserves.

The issues in the South China Sea are not only a
conflict over the islands, but also includes resources
of oil and natural gas, underwater archaeology, hydro
geothermal and fishery.




OIL EXPLORATION
Second Persian Gulf

Natural resources of oil and gas

20 trillion of cubic meters of
natural gas


DEEP WATER RESOURCES
"enhancing the ability of marine development and
utilizing and actively developing offshore oil and
gas."

CNOOC or China National Offshore Oil Corporation

2,000 meters under the sea

Annual production: 25 million tons of oil and natural
gas

TECHNOLOGICAL DISADVANTAGES
CNOOCs technology is still outdated when it
comes to deep water gas and oil exploration.

Requires huge investment and the
operational environment is much more
complicated.




CHINAS REACTION
Police in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan will
board and search ships.

New rules, which come into effect on Jan. 1, will allow Hainan
police to board and seize control of foreign ships which
"illegally enter" Chinese waters and order them to change
course or stop sailing, the official China Daily reported.
ASEAN: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Most of these claims are historical, but they are also based
upon internationally accepted principles extending territorial
claims offshore onto a country's continental shelf, as well as
the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The 1982 convention created a number of guidelines
concerning the status of islands, the continental shelf,
enclosed seas, and territorial limits.


CHINAS ACTION
Hainan, which likes to style itself as China's answer to Hawaii
or Bali with its resorts and beaches, is the province
responsible for administering the country's extensive claims
to the myriad islets and atolls in the South China Sea.

The Philippines, which also has claims to parts of the South
China Sea, said the move could violate international maritime
laws allowing the right of passage and accused Beijing of
trying to escalate tension in the area.
CHINAS ACTION
China has said in the past it will respect freedom of navigation
in the South China Sea and that it has no intention of trying to
restrict access to the area's vital shipping lanes for legitimate
vessels.

China's assertion of sovereignty over the stretch of water off
its south coast and to the east of mainland Southeast Asia has
set it directly against Vietnam and the Philippines, while
Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also lay claim to parts.
CHINAS ACTION
China occasionally detains fishermen, mostly from Vietnam,
whom it accuses of operating illegally in Chinese waters

China has further angered the Philippines and Vietnam by
issuing new passports showing a map depicting China's claims
to the disputed waters.
ASEAN: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Three of the most relevant to the South China Sea are:

Article 3, which establishes that "every state has the right
to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit
not exceeding 12 nautical miles";
Articles 55 - 75 define the concept of an Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ), which is an area up to 200 nautical
miles beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea.
Article 121, which states that rocks that cannot sustain
human habitation or economic life of their own shall have
no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.
ASEAN: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
The establishment of the EEZ created the potential for
overlapping claims in semi-enclosed seas such as the South
China Sea.

South China Sea claimants have clashed as they tried to
establish outposts on the islands (mostly military) in order to
be in conformity with Article 121 in pressing their claims.

In mid-1991, Indonesia took the initiative in seeking to open
multilateral negotiations on competitive South China Sea
claims, especially those claims involving jurisdictional disputes
over the Spratly Islands.
ASEAN: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
The ASEAN foreign ministers have reiterated the invitations to
all parties directly concerned to subscribe to the principles of
the ASEAN Declaration on the South China Sea.

In late 1998 the presidents of China and the Philippines
agreed to form a committee of experts to advise on
confidence-building measures.

In late November 1999, ASEAN agreed to draft a regional
code of conduct to prevent conflicts over the Spratly Islands in
advance of the ASEAN summit in Manila.


ASEAN: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

The photographic evidence showed that China had expanded
installations on the reef since 1995, when it first started
building what it said were shelters for fishermen.

Southeast Asian countries, concerned that Beijing might be
strengthening its claim to much of the South China Sea, called
for restraint and strict observance of international law in a
high-level meeting with China in January 2000.
ASEAN: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
On 04 November 2002 the Governments of the Member
States of ASEAN and the Government of the People's Republic
of China signed the "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
the South China Sea.

China and the Philippines have discussed possible joint
exploration for petroleum in the disputed Spratly Islands in
the South China Sea.
ASEAN: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
In September 2003 representatives of the Philippines, China
and other claimant countries of the Spratly Islands signed a
declaration of peace to promote the development of the
resources in the disputed islands.

In March 2005, the national oil companies of China, the
Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct
marine seismic experiments in the Spratly Islands for
economic purposes.
POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS TO THE
DISPUTE
1. One of the claimant countries will take all of
the territory through a tribunal dispute
resolution, or military force.
2. The most powerful nations will share the
wealth of the Spratly Islands and the less
powerful will become disenfranchised.
POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS TO THE
DISPUTE
3. All the disputants share the wealth equally
4. All the states share in proportion to an
articulated distribution scheme.
5. None of the states have access to the wealth.

REFERENCES:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/30/china-seas-
idUSL4N0991Z020121130

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/spratly-
diplomacy.htm

http://www.globaltimes.cn/SPECIALCOVERAGE/SouthChinaSe
aConflict.aspx