U.S.-China: Respective Interpretation of the Law of the Sea

While the United States Department of Defense accused five Chinese vessels of harassing the U.S. surveillance ship “Impeccable” on the high seas of the South China Sea, the Chinese Foreign Ministry rebutted that the U.S. should never have sent ships engaging in illegal activities in China’s Exclusive Economic Zone of the South China Sea. Both sides accused the other of violating international law. The debate of who’s right or wrong, I’m afraid, definitely will go on and on.

In accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as the U.S. pointed out, a coastal state has the right to establish: 1. Territorial Sea, its sovereignty extends up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles from coast baselines, including coastal island’s baselines; 2. Exclusive Economic Zone, its breadth shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines.

The harassment took place in the South China Sea within the Exclusive Economic Zone of China. The U.S. side said that, according to the Convention, other states’ engagement in the exploitation of economic resources, such as exploiting sea-bed natural gas, in China’s Exclusive Economic Zone shall be restricted, but the intelligence–gathering activities are free from restriction. For a long time, the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft and ships have been active in the South China Sea.

Interestingly, the Convention has never been approved by the U.S. Congress because the U.S. disapproved of the Convention relating to the sea-bed mineral development. Therefore, the U.S. is not a signatory of the Convention, but China is.

China has long regarded the whole South China Sea as its territorial waters. China insists that the U.S.’ gathering of intelligence in China’s Exclusive Economic Zone is in violation of the Convention. All illegal activities in the zone by the U.S., without permit of China, should immediately stop, as the Convention clearly stipulated, said Ma Zhaoxu, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman.

Wu Huayang, Deputy Political Commissar of the Chinese Navy further pointed out that the the incident had been “stirred by the U.S.” That U.S. vessels engaging in marine survey along the Chinese coast for military purposes, in itself, has encroached upon China’s sovereignty.

Both China and the U.S., as quoting the Convention, by expressing their own respective interpretations, differ in opinion on the issue. It seems that in the future the U.S. ships are likely to continue their presence in the South China Sea and Chinese vessels will continue to harass.

The South China Sea is the world’s most complex and tense waterway, and also where the U.S. defense missile system is deployed. If the nightmare of the outbreak of war between these two great Sino-American powers comes true, the South China Sea is most likely to be the flashing spot, said Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia correspondent of the Times of London.