Chinese protest could ignite South China Sea dispute

The US protest to China this week over the alleged harassment of two of its navy ships by Chinese vessels, and China's reaffirmation of ownership of the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, highlight two festering maritime disputes. Either could lead to conflict in the region unless it is carefully managed.

The tiff between the United States and China resurrects a long-standing disagreement over the rights of coastal states in exclusive economic zones which extend for 200 nautical miles from their shores, and the procedures to be followed by foreign military ships and planes when using those zones' waters and airspace.

The US says its unarmed ocean surveillance ship Impeccable was about 75 miles south of China's Hainan island on Sunday, towing sonars, when it was forced to leave the area after Chinese vessels engaged in "dangerous manoeuvres" nearby. The Pentagon says another US surveillance ship was harassed last week in the Yellow Sea, 125 nautical miles off China's coast.

Although the US has not signed the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which regulates ocean use, it insists that its military ships and planes have freedom of navigation and overflight in "international" waters, including foreign states' exclusive zones.

China, which has signed the treaty, maintains that military operations, hydrographic surveying and intelligence collection by foreign ships or planes can be carried out in an economic zone only with permission from the coastal state.

Some Asian countries take a similar view, even though they may be reluctant to challenge the US or other naval powers in the way China does.

China's military power is growing steadily, a fact underscored by last week 's announcement that the Chinese defence budget will increase by nearly 15 per cent this year despite the economic slump.

China's ambitions to become a naval power with global reach were also underlined by the recent deployment of Chinese warships on anti-piracy operations off Somalia, and the announcement that the Chinese Navy plans to build and operate aircraft carriers.

Still, China's muscle-flexing in its declared zone is nothing new. In March 2001 a Chinese frigate confronted the US Navy survey ship Bowditch in China's zone. The following month a Chinese jet fighter crashed off Hainan, killing the pilot, after a mid-air collision with a US Navy EP-3 surveillance plane.

The American aircraft was so badly damaged it made an emergency landing on Hainan, where the crew of 24 were detained by the Chinese military for 11 days, straining Sino- American relations and causing a temporary break in defence contacts between the two countries.

There have also been reported intrusions by North Korean and Chinese trawlers, equipped for spying, into Japan's declared zone in recent years, and Hanoi has protested at Chinese military exercises in Vietnam's claimed zone.

China's claim to ownership of the Spratly Islands brings it into conflict with other claimants, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. On Monday, China posted an official comment on its Foreign Ministry website after the Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi last week inspected Layang Layang, an atoll off Sabah that China says is part of its Spratly Islands territory.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing asserted China's "indisputable sovereignty" over the widely scattered Spratly archipelago and "adjacent waters" but added that it was ready to resolve disputes through consultation.

Beijing's sovereignty claims in the South China Sea are far-reaching and may cover as much as 80 per cent of the whole area. It is the only claimant state that will have the military strength to enforce its title, although the cost to its relations with ASEAN and principal users of the South China Sea, like the US, Japan and South Korea, could be high.

A voluntary code of conduct, between ASEAN and China, already applies in the South China Sea. It is designed to prevent conflict. There is also a set of non-binding guidelines for navigation and overflight in East Asia's exclusive economic zones. But neither is consistently observed because countries involved put their security and economic interests ahead of regional peace and stability.

They should reverse the order and negotiate durable accords to ensure small-scale clashes do not spiral into something far more serious.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South-East Asian Studies in Singapore.