strategic importance of south china sea

The South China Sea in Strategic Terms | Wilson Center Chinas significant increase in spending and capability of its maritime forces is of note. Despite all that, Beijing now faces a competition with Washington (and Delhi and Tokyo) for influence in Naypyidaw. Geopolitical platform, analysis of political, military, security, economic, social events with international and geopolitics relevance. Accordingly, Malaysia's note verbale serves as the strongest stance of Malaysia on the SCS in recent times and aligns itself with the top priority of its DWP. It is a rich source of hydrocarbons and natural resources. Strategic. Southeast Asians do not want to and should not have to choose between the two, but Chinese behavior is moving some states to pick sidesor at least to lean in one direction or another. The Malacca Strait, the South China Sea and the Sino-American The strategic importance of the SCS is mainly due to its geographical location, as the area is one of the worlds busiest and most strategic shipping lanes. Thailand, of course, has been an important security partner for the United States. As one of the busiest trade routes in the world and home to a wealth of marine and mineral resources, the South China Sea holds great economic and geostrategic importance. Expanding U.S. access to Vietnamese facilities as described above could eventually render access to Thai facilities somewhat redundant, further weakening the institutional support for the alliance in the United States. China sought access to natural resources, to political influence and to a strategic maritime position in the Bay of Bengal. economic importance associated with the ocean is tremendous and manifold. In a first, a Modi-Obamajoint statementlast year explicitly raised concerns over the South China Sea and called on all parties to avoid the threat or use of force and pursue resolution of territorial and maritime disputes through all peaceful means.. The main route to and from Pacific and Indian ocean ports is through the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea. That grouping came under Chinese control an event that went almost entirely unnoticed in the wider world as the drama marking the end of the Vietnam War played out. The strategic landscape of the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia in the early 1990s was remarkably benign with optimism in full flower. Vietnam already flies modern Russian fighter jets and is expecting delivery this year of its sixth and final Kilo-class submarinesubmarines so quiet that the U.S. Navy refers to them as black holes. If the Chinese Navy wants to have its way in the South China Sea, it will have to dedicate resources to tracking those subs, a task with which the PLAN has limited experience. The Strategic Importance of the South China Sea (With reference to the geopolitical, economic, and military aspects) South China Sea is known as one of the most significant and dangerous cluster of Islands in the contemporary world. Those bases may be vulnerable, but before and at the outbreak of hostilities, they will allow China to project power deep into maritime Southeast Asia, to threaten commercial and military passage through the sea, and to impose and enforce an air defense identification zone. The two countries elevated bilateral ties to an extensive strategic partnership in 2013 and Japan is in the midst of donating to Vietnam six patrol vessels (for use by the coast guard and fisheries ministry). But addressing the risks of its near seas means tackling the time-consuming and costly project of building, training and deploying a stronger blue-water navy while also establishing a greater . A third of the world's shipping passes through it, its fisheries are critical sources of food for millions of people. Cobra Gold, hosted by Thailand and led by the United States, is the largest annual multilateral military exercise in Asia. The United States will continue to stand with our allies and partners to uphold the order that we helped build, Pencesaid. A South China Sea Strategy | American Enterprise Institute - AEI The Obama administration has made modest gains in this regard, but it will be up for to the next president to seize that opportunity and ensure that Southeast Asias future is prosperous, peaceful and free. In sum, the United States has built and maintained a dense network of security links and obligations throughout East and Southeast Asia all sustained by regular contact with the Seventh Fleet as it transits the region via the South China Sea. Hence, the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. These women are creating climate solutions, One year later: Democracy stands in Ukraine. In this article, let us look at the strategic importance of the South China Sea, History of the South China Sea Dispute, countries involved, causes, impacts, India's stand on the dispute and the way forward for the UPSC IAS Examination. Geographical Significance and Natural Reserves in the South China Sea Abstract. Allied efforts to support U.S. force posture in the region will remain vital, but the United States should also expect allies to make greater contributions in responding to Chinese coercion. Notably, the paper identified Malaysia's maritime claims in the South China Sea as its top security concern. Anti-China alliance coalescing in South China Sea - Asia Times The United States and the West more broadly can live with such an outcome. The message will be clear; the era of American international leadership and predominance is over and a new preeminent power has taken its place. Aung San Suu Kyi has no interest in antagonizing Chinawhich shares a border with Burma and is a major source of foreign investmentbut nor can she afford to alienate the United States or India. If China can exert complete control over the region, using predominantly the maritime domain, it can build a significant strategic sphere of influence and power. Japanese Expert Explains Why China Wants Absolute Control Over The Chinese fighter jet flies within 500 feet of U.S. patrol over South China has tried to effectively annex the whole South China Sea region as its territorial waters, according to Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). From the report. Chinas rising military power and political influence is generating anxiety and suspicion among some of its neighbours and western powers. Does US-hegemonic decline translate into a fight between democracy and autocracy in maintaining a benign world order? Such pressure should focus on concrete, near-term objectives, such as putting a stop to reeducation of regime critics. But the South China Sea has been dangerously overfished. The conflict and tension over competing sovereignty claims in the South China Sea has grown considerably in the past 5-10 years. The strategic importance of the South China Sea cannot be overstated. To counter Chinas efforts to control the South China Sea, the United States needs a sustainable strategy to bolster its own capabilities, work more effectively with capable allies and partners, and strengthen the regional order. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. China, too, considers control of these waters to be of high strategic importance. Close allies such as Australia and Japan have a great deal to offer in terms of capability and capacity, and should be encouraged to do more. Sun Tzu Explains China's Shaping Operations in the South China Sea Networking Social Entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia: Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) program, The High Price of Neglecting Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy, Environmental Change and Security Program, North Korea International Documentation Project, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative, Science and Technology Innovation Program, Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition. 2009 China issues two diplomatic notes that appear to claim a majority of the South China Sea. China's Maritime Choke Points - Geopolitical Futures Therefore, the US plays a key role in influencing the resolution of the SCS disputes. U.S. responses to Chinas South China Sea activities have been insufficient to alter Chinas behavior and have fed the narrative that China is pushing the United States out of the region. Generally, oil and minerals move north, and food and manufactured goods move south. Without the southern American presence, Chinese forces could more easily divide American forces east and west in the event of a crisis, more easily defend territorial claims or intimidate Malaysia and Indonesia, and more easily threaten maritime and air traffic crisscrossing the South China Sea. Utapao has been suggested as a permanent Southeast Asian Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) hub. Australia, for its part, has vocally supported U.S. freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea and may have quietly conducted its own in recent months. This new strategic map of Southeast Asia actually began to take shape during the Bush administration, whichinitially launchedthe effort to move beyond Americas traditional hub-and-spokes alliance model in the Asia-Pacific. Dispersed American forces would act as countermeasure and would complicate defense planning for the Chinese military and political calculations for Beijing, while ensuring U.S. forces are positioned to support each other in the event of a crisis. Even then, the countrys division between royalists and red-shirts will likely endure. The United States should continue to prioritize military presence in the Asia-Pacific at the same time as it invests in key capabilities, such as long-range precision strike, undersea warfare, cyber/space systems, and other capabilities that will preserve the U.S. ability to deter Chinese aggression. Chinas claims over the legal status and maritime rights of the 9 dash line remain ambiguous and outside of UN recognised EEZ claims. If China succeeds, in displacing U.S. power in the Western Pacific and Chinese territorial expansion into the South China Sea becomes permanent and codified, global geopolitics will have entered a new and very different era. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), it carries one-third of global shipping, carrying trillions of dollars in trade, making it a significant geopolitical water body. World. Leung, The Consequences of Conquest: Why Indo-Pacific Power Hinges on Taiwan, United States vs China: from Partnership to Antagonism - Interview with Alfredo Toro Hardy, How the Ukraine War changes Global Geopolitics, What The Economist omits to address in President Xi's vision of a global security order, Armenia: Trapped in Between Interview with Gayane Novikova, How Chinas COVID Policy Reversal Impacts Globally: an interview with Neeraj Singh Manha, Marcos-Xi Durian Diplomacy Climbs to Higher Gear, Is the EU Really Willing to Enlarge in the Western Balkans? Washington (United States of America), February 27 (ANI): A Chinese J-11 fighter jet armed with air-to-air missiles intercepted the US Navy reconnaissance jet over the South China Sea, the Wall Street Journal reported. The geopolitical message was unmistakable: Western expectations that China was transitioning toward political democracy were entirely illusory. Last year, the construction projects covered 72 acres. The strategic signal of an Indian presence in the South China Sea Harsh V. Pant India has wider stakes in South China Sea as nearly 55% of India's trade with the Indo-Pacific region passes through these waters. Geopolitical and Strategic Landscape of South China Sea Giving ground on vital interests in Asia will not encourage greater cooperation on global issues. China's plan for populating the South China Sea was launched in 2012 when "Sansha City", the administrative centre for all Chinese-claimed features in the South China Sea on Woody Island in the . All these aspects highlight the strategic indispensability of the South China Sea for global trade routes. Countries across the region prioritized economic growth and modernization. The South China Sea (SCS) consists of over 200 tiny islands, reefs, shoals, atolls and sandbanks grouped in to 3 archipelagos the Spratlys, the Paracels and the Pratas Macclesfield Bank and Scarborough Shoal. Cooperation on areas of shared interest is important not only to the United States, but also to China. US and China is engaging in this sea to control all significance. This button displays the currently selected search type. "First, South China Sea is important for the strategic patrol of Chinese SSBN [nuclear ballistic missile submarine], which needs to enter west Pacific Ocean for its nuclear . 2016 The Arbitration Tribunal rules in favor of the Philippines. More than 50% of world trade passes. The strategic signal of an Indian presence in the South China Sea More than half of the world's fishing vessels are in the South China Sea, and millions of people depend on these waters for their food and livelihoods. In addition, tensions have been raised with the Philippines after assertive Chinese naval patrols which they described as aggressive action. If this sounds overstated or overwrought it is not. China is undertaking a persistent, long-term effort to establish control over the South China Sea. African community leaders take home lessons from U.S. This order embodies certain foundational political principles respect for international law, preservation of the real sovereign independence of regional states, a refusal to legitimate unilateral territorial expansion, and the unconditional acceptance of the sea-lanes as a global commons. You can update your choices at any time in your settings. The importance of the South China Sea | ShareAmerica The 2022 Philippine Election: Trouble for Democracy and Foreign Relations Ahead? A new arrangement for U.S. naval access to Cam Ranh Bay may well be in the offing. China and The Four Views Strategy - Modern Diplomacy Figure 4 shows the overlapping sovereignty claims in the SCS, with Chinas claims according to the 9 dash line doctrine in red. Japan and South Korea will face a perilous new reality with China in control of the seaborne lifeline of both countries. Finally, the United States should prioritize governance issues in its relations with Southeast Asian states. PDF The Strategic Importance of South China Sea - World Geostrategic Insights Beijing has also been careful to avoid estranging Aung San Suu Kyi and adopted a largely pragmatic approach to the countrys transition away from authoritarian rule. China has constructed more than 3,000 acres of artificial islands, and although this is not illegal, it is an intimidating display of wealth and power. Meanwhile, Japan is providing ten new multi-role vessels to the Philippine Coast Guard; Manila is also interested in procuring used P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft from Tokyo. But in order to achieve renewed stability in the regionto ensure that Southeast Asians are not susceptible to non-military Chinese coercionthe United States must strive to become more than just the security partner of choice. Ironically, the United States is drawing closer to communist Vietnam, in which human rights are serially abused, while growing apart from a major Vietnam War ally, largely due to concerns over democratic backsliding. 2014 The United States and the Philippines sign an enhanced defense pact, strengthening the U.S.-Filipino relationship. This concept of regional order links tightly to a broader set of interests, values, and institutions embodied in the post-World War II international system a system that reflects U.S. values, U.S. leadership and is consonant with U.S. interests. What has been happening in the South China Sea and what do experts The United States needs to consider a wider variety of non-military responses to Chinas efforts to control the South China Sea, and more effectively build a local coalition to support these responses. What is the strategic importance of the South China Sea. Firstly, the South China Sea is a prominent shipping passage with $5.3 trillion worth of . In addition, this thesis intends to propose a solution to the dispute by pulling from a variety of sources. All this will occur in a region that is increasingly the vibrant center of the world economy. With a new Southeast Asian strategic alignment taking shape as described, geography makes Indonesia and Malaysiaespecially due to its Sabah and Sarawak states on Borneothe regions key swing states. The post-war regional order. See Media Page for more interview, contact, and citation details. Hanoi will move cautiously and such access may be limited to the purposes of logistical support for the time being. Media Relations Manager, External Relations. It is unlikely that any states in the region possess the wealth and power to oppose this, although there is always a realistic possibility that they may receive backing from the USA if it is in their interests. Recent satellite analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows that Chinese fishing fleets are engaged in paramilitary work on behalf of the state rather than the commercial enterprise of fishing, the organization reported. South China Sea is also strategically important due to the rising competition between China, Vietnam, Philippine and the US for military supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region. The strategically important South China Sea is an increasingly prominent stage for the spiraling tensions . As sovereignty over the SCS involves Chinas economic, energy and national security interests it is highly likely that the increased projection of maritime power will continue. China's Claims to the South China Sea Are Unlawful. Now What? access to Thailands military facilities, particularly the strategically located and well-equipped Utapao airbase, is considered invaluable. In the contemporary era, Taiwan remains geographically at the intersection of most of East Asia's danger points. The South China Sea is a strategic body of water bordering Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam and China. China has seized the initiative in the South China Sea, however, and the United States needs to revamp its strategy to reverse current trends and escape the trap of reactive and ineffectual policymaking. President Musharraf requested China to invest in this important strategic chokepoint in the Indian Ocean., to which China agreed. PDF Countries South China Sea Overview - Energy Information Administration The area is globally important for a few reasons. What is more important from a strategic viewpoint, however, is that global energy projections that the EIA issues in the International Energy Outlook, issued in October 2021, make it clear that China and Asia will have a sharply growing dependence on MENA and Gulf petroleum exports that may well extend through 2050. These islands are large enough for military runways and well as SAM installations. In such a complex environment, it is important to have well-established, recognizable rules of international law. In each of these arenas, a successful Chinese effort to seize control of the South China Sea will have a profound impact and each is worth elaboration. The United States calls this treaty the Law of the Sea Convention.. The United States has leverage over China in areas not directly related to South China Sea and may have to consider using or threatening to use these tools to stabilize the regional order. The United States can, if necessary, accept a continental Southeast Asia that leans China without major concern for Americas primary interests. There were, however, cautionary signs for those prepared to see them. China's strategic perspective on the South China Sea The USSJohn C. Stennistied up there for a few days in April. Few in Washington were inclined to see the South China Sea as a strategic priority engaging vital U.S. national interests. South China Sea has geo-strategic, geo-politic and geo-economic importance due to half of the world trade passage and presence of precious resources of oil and gas. A South China Sea Strategy By Dan Blumenthal, Michael Auslin, and Michael Mazza I. Beware China: America Fights Back In recent years, China's inventive engineering feats have allowed it to. Importantly, American access to four airbases (with potentially more to be made available at a later date)especially those on Luzon and Palawanwill make U.S. air power resident in Southeast Asia. In short, adopting a more robust deterrence approach need not prevent cooperation that is in the interests of both countries. South China Sea is a strategic sea lane is significance for connectivity, navigation, trade and resources is a global hotspot as a potential flashpoint. Chinese Military Expansionism in the South China Sea Even if Beijings island-building campaign succeeds in turning the South China Sea into a Chinese lake, it will be one in which Chinese forces are constantly monitored and from which they can only depart with implicit American acquiescence. The new administration should issue clear and consistent strategic messages, since inconsistent articulation of the objectives of the rebalance strategy has caused confusion in China and amongst U.S. allies and partners. No other state in the region can match this increase in projection and rival China due to the economic differences. through South China Sea Port is 1400 kms long. China has shown it is willing to accept substantial risk to achieve its ends, and has engaged in outright coercion against weaker neighbors like the Philippines and Vietnam. China's strategic reach into the South China Sea has obvious and profound implications for three sets of international actors: (1) the littoral Southeast Asian states (Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines); (2) major maritime countries heavily dependent on the sea lanes through the South China Sea (including Japan, Korea, and