Global Issues
CHINA: New Border Dispute Body at Time of Growing Tensions
Beijing has confirmed that its more assertive stance in recent territorial spats with its neighbours is a prelude to a more forceful projection of China’s rising military and diplomatic clout in the region and beyond.
The Foreign Ministry has announced the setting up of a new agency entrusted with tackling land and maritime border disputes, at a time of escalating rows between China and its neighbours over disputed territories in the South China and East China Sea.
It is also a time when quarrels with the United States have become routine, leading to rising military tensions between the world’s only superpower and the nation aspiring to the title.
'This is an important step in China’s go-out strategy,' says Liang Yunxiang, an expert on international relations at Beijing University. 'At a time when China’s maritime rights and interests are getting more and more attention, there is a need for greater coordination between various government departments involved in solving disputes.'
In the past, responsibilities for land and sea boundary demarcation, drafting of diplomatic policies and negotiations with neighbours over joint development of the sea were shared by several departments.
'Because of the country’s long boundary and large sea territory, it is necessary to establish a special department,' foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said this week, announcing the new agency. China, which shares a land boundary with 14 countries, has finalised demarcation with most of its neighbours. Only the border with Bhutan and India remains to be settled.
But China’s sea territory and maritime boundaries have emerged as a growing source of friction with neighbouring countries and the United States.
In the past month alone, there have been four incidents where Chinese-flagged fishing vessels maneuvred close to unarmed U.S. ships involved in underwater surveillance and harassed them, claiming in consequence that the U.S. ships had violated international laws by entering China’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Based on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country’s exclusive economic zone extends 200 miles from the coast. Within the EEZ, coastal countries have the right to explore and exploit natural resources and have jurisdiction over establishment of artificial islands, marine scientific research and protection of the marine environment.
Other countries are entitled to conduct peaceful activities in the EEZ, as long as they respect the rights and duties of the coastal state. In the recent confrontations with Washington, China claimed the U.S. ships were in violation of international and Chinese laws because they had entered China’s EEZ without authorisation.
U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told the U.S. Congress in March that China had become assertive in staking claims to international waters around the EEZ and was 'more military, aggressive, forward-looking than we saw a couple of years before' in Southeast Asia and the South China Sea.
The setting up of China’s new special maritime agency comes days before the May 13 deadline set by the United Nations for countries to submit claims over extended continental shelves. Such extended shelves would stretch 350 miles from the baseline.
'The decision is undoubtedly linked to all the incidents and the U.N. deadline,' speculates Liang, pointing out that several countries have claims over sea territories that according to China fall under its sovereignty.
Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia have all challenged China’s sovereignty claims over the South China Sea an area rich in fisheries and believed to contain significant deposits of oil and gas. In the East China Sea, China’s claim over the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu in Chinese, has been challenged by Japan.
Recent months have been marked by numerous confrontations over these contested territories. As exploration of the South China Sea uncovers more and more natural resources in the disputed waters, rivalry between neighbours has become more intense too. What China claims as its exclusive economic zone overlaps with those of Vietnam and the Philippines.
In March, the Philippines passed a new law reasserting Manila’s claims to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, prompting Beijing to dispatch a patrol boat to the area.
On Apr. 25, Vietnam appointed a government official as governor to the Paracel Islands, triggering yet another protest from Beijing. 'Vietnam's decision to appoint an official is illegal and invalid,' foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. 'China has indisputable sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and their adjacent waters.'
Earlier this year Beijing saw fit to boost its maritime claims in the disputed areas by sending retired navy ships to patrol fishing grounds surrounding the Spratly Islands.
'Faced with a growing amount of illegal fishing and other countries’ unfounded territorial claims to islands in China’s exclusive economic zone, it has become necessary to step up the fishery administration's patrols to protect China’s rights and interests,' the Xinhua news agency quoted Wu Zhuang, director of the Administration of Fishery and Fishing Harbour Supervision of the South China Sea, as saying.
Willy Lam, a veteran China watcher based in Hong Kong, believes that Beijing has not abandoned its policy of joint economic development with these countries in boundary areas, but that at the same time it is pursuing a strategy of military strength and modernisation to guarantee its interests.
'Chinese experts claim that their oceanic territory covers three million sq km, and that neighbouring countries are laying claims to (if not also occupying) more than one million sq km,' he said in an e-mail.
'So they have to beef up all diplomatic, legal and military aspects of their defence. Beijing thinks that with a strong navy plus aircraft carriers, its diplomats will have the upper hand at the negotiation table.'
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service