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China’s Maritime Trap
China needs to rethink its approach to its maritime disputes.
Just days after the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, news spread that the U.S. Navy would soon challenge China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea,
sending a ship within 12 nautical miles of some of China’s man-made
islands built on top of reefs in the Spratly Islands. True or not, the
news soon drew worldwide attention and effectively overshadowed any
outcomes from the summit during what is a testing time for China-U.S.
relations.
In recent years, and
especially since Xi Jinping became president, China has paid increasing
attention to the sea and to its maritime interests and rights. At the
18th CPC National Congress, China officially put forward the vision of
building a maritime power to effectively defend its maritime interests
and rights. In a first, China’s Defense White Paper 2013 has four
paragraphs devoted to emphasizing the importance of safeguarding China’s
maritime interests and rights. The Defense White Paper 2015,
under the sub-section of National Security Situation, warns that
China’s maritime interests and rights are being eroded by some of its
neighbors who are taking provocative actions by strengthening their
military presence and construction on the illegally occupied islands and
reefs of China, and claims some powers from outside the region are also
interfering in the South China Sea issue and that one country even goes
so far as to conduct intense surveillance in China’s EEZs. As a result,
it said, maintaining its maritime interests and rights will be a
long-term challenge for China.http://thediplomat.com/2015/10/chinas-maritime-trap/
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