Opinion | For South China Sea disputes to be resolved amicably, US must get out of the way

The latest State Department report is yet another attempt by the US – which is neither a party to the disputes nor to the international treaty that governs the contested waters – to steer the outcome of negotiations between China and Southeast Asian claimants

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Published: 8:45am, 18 Jan 2022

The US State Department recently released a report on China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. It is the fourth such report since 1970, and the second on claims in the South China Sea since the Philippines initiated international arbitration against China over these claims in 2013.

Unsurprisingly, this latest “Limits in the Seas” report provides an almost complete rejection of China’s claims. Even on the baselines of the Zhongsha Islands’ and Nansha Islands’ territorial waters, which the Chinese government has yet to determine, the report gives a pre-emptive negative judgment.

The report examines China’s sovereign claims over maritime features, straight baselines, maritime zones and historic rights, as well as China’s latest formulation of its claims following the arbitration ruling in 2016.

China believes that the award was fundamentally flawed both in law and fact. It is for this reason that Beijing made its position on the South China Sea more specific and more in-depth. But this does not mean its position has changed after the arbitration.

In its interpretation of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), the US report reflects its policies and positions.

It should be noted that the policies and positions of a non-party to a dispute are not golden rules in international law for judging the merits of that dispute. Further, US policies and positions are far from reflecting authoritative interpretations of an international treaty: the right to interpret a treaty belongs to its contracting parties, but the US is not a party to Unclos.

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