In this page I’ll be discussing a topic relevant to my major and interest in Political Science, that being maintaining peace with Asia, and most specifically China. This page will cover several topics regarding the South China Sea. The South China sea is the sea to the East of China, spanning from the eastern coast of China to the Western coasts of Japan. This region is home to extremely active trade routes, and is therefore vitally important to the countries around it as well as the countries that use the area as a means of business. Most countries in the region, such as Japan and VIietnam, lay claim to some portion of this sea. The greatest conflict arises from China, who claims a gigantic area of the South China Sea. China has begun to make artificial islands with military capabilities, despite the ruling of an international court that says China is doing so illegally and must stop. If the problems in the South China Sea are not addressed, it has the capability of turning into a very dangerous area with the ability to spark war at any given moment.
This video is paramount to understanding the situation going forward in the South China Sea. One of the first things that must be understood when looking at this video is realization that an international court has ruled China’s actions in the South China Sea as being in the wrong. This has affected how China acts going forward. It’s important to understand that this ruling was seen as a huge loss of face for Xi Jinping, the current leader of China’s Communist Party.
This Scholarly article focuses not on the tensions in the South China Sea, but on the environmental impact of China’s actions. These construction China is performing in the region is causing irreparable harm to the environment, and this article discusses exactly what is being done. This is important to understanding why even some non-political organizations are so opposed to China’s actions in the region.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=2900567
Hayton’s book on the South China Sea takes a reflective stance on both sides of the issue, and offers several helpful alternatives to conflict. This is an important resource for not only understanding the situation, but also looking towards being able to resolve it.
This source talks about how China is wrong to mischaracterize old rulings and laws in its favor. This is a good source to counteract the somewhat biased RT video below.
http://www.voanews.com/a/analysts-china-misses-facts-in-chiding-us-over-contested-sea/3720916.html
This source from RT addresses mostly US action in the South China Sea. Since this source is from Russia, a close ally of China, the focus is on America as the bad actor, ignoring for the most part China’s transgressions. Despite this being an obviously biased source towards China, I still thinks it’s valuable as while it ignores China’s part in this region, it does correctly identify a lot of the actions taken by the US that could be seen as inappropriate. At the very least, this video explains partly why China has the right to feel somewhat threatened by the United States.
I’m extremely hesitant to offer any kind of advice about how to move forward with the situation in the South China Sea. I am hyper-aware that this is a very complex topic with no easy answer. In fact I would be wary of anyone who claims they know exactly what to do in the South China sea. What I can be sure of is that China needs to be shown that such aggressive expansionism is not tolerable. With Donald Trump at America’s helm, nothing is certain in regards to foreign relations. Perhaps a good way to look at The South China Sea, as if through the lens of a businessman like Donald Trump, is as a simple business transaction. China is claiming huge portions of the sea, but we’ve yet to begin haggling. A common business tactic is to start high and work down from there. China and America’s allies need to start the business of finding a solution, one that is realistic. Besides, if China’s burgeoning economy is any indicator, the Chinese have no difficulty understanding the language of business.