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Maritime Territorial and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Disputes Involving China
can still fish the rich waters around it. The situation is not perfect but neither is China
flaunting its defiance....
Much more significantly, China has avoided drilling for oil and gas on the wrong side of
the invisible lines prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS)....
... the ruling means China has no claim to the fish, oil or gas more than 12 nautical miles
from any of the Spratlys or Scarborough Shoal.
The Chinese authorities appear not to accept this....
There are clear signs from both China's words and deeds that Beijing has quietly
modified its overall legal position in the South China Sea. Australian researcher Andrew
Chubb noted a significant article in the Chinese press in July last year outlining the new
view....
... China's new position seems to represent a major step towards compliance with
UNCLOS and, therefore, the ruling. Most significantly, it removes the grounds for
Chinese objections to other countries fishing and drilling in wide areas of the South
China Sea....
Overall, the picture is of a China attempting to bring its vision of the rightful regional
order (as the legitimate owner of every rock and reef inside the U-shaped line) within
commonly understood international rules. Far from being "waste paper," China is taking
the tribunal ruling very seriously. It is still some way from total compliance but it is
clearly not deliberately flouting the ruling. .60
Another observer stated:
A year ago today, an arbitral tribunal formed pursuant to the United Nations Convention
for the Law of the Sea issued a blockbuster award finding much of China's conduct in the
South China Sea in violation of international law. As I detailed that day on this blog and
elsewhere, the Philippines won about as big a legal victory as it could have expected. But
as many of us also warned that day, a legal victory is not the same as an actual victory.
In fact, over the past year China has succeeded in transforming its legal defeat into a
policy victory by maintaining its aggressive South China Sea policies while escaping
sanction for its non-compliance. While the election of a new pro-China Philippines
government is a key factor, much of the blame for China's victory must also be placed on
the Obama Administration....
International law seldom enforces itself, and even the reputational costs of violating
international law do not arise unless other states impose those costs on the law-breaker.
Both the Philippines and the U.S. had policy options that would have raised the costs of
China's non-compliance with the award. But neither country's government chose to press
China on the arbitral award....
Looking back after one year, we cannot say (yet) that U.S. policy in the South China Sea
is a failure. But we can say that the U.S. under President Obama missed a huge
opportunity to change the dynamics in the region in its favor, and it is hard to know
whether or when another such opportunity will arise in the future.61
60 Bill Hayton, "Beijing shifts strategy in South China Sea," Nikkei Asian Review, July 12, 2017.
61 Julian Ku, "Assessing the South China Sea Arbitral Award after One Year: Why China Won and the U.S. is Losing,"
Lawfare, July 12, 2017.Congressional Research Service
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O'Rourke, Ronald. Maritime Territorial and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Disputes Involving China: Issues for Congress, report, August 17, 2017; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1020870/m1/28/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.