Ripple effect
East Asia needs better maritime accords to ensure small clashes don't escalate into major conflicts, writes Michael Richardson

The US protest to China this week over the alleged harassment of two of its naval 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 carefully managed.

The tiff between Washington and Beijing resurrects a long-standing disagreement over the rights of coastal states in exclusive economic zones that extend for 370km from their shores, and the procedures to be followed by foreign military ships and planes when using waters and airspace in such zones.

The US says that the surveillance ship USNS Impeccable was about 120km south of 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 that another US surveillance ship, USNS Victorious, was harassed last week in the Yellow Sea, 200km from China's coast.

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

China, which has signed the law of the sea treaty, maintains that military operations, hydrographic surveys and intelligence collection by foreign ships or planes can only be carried out in such zones 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 was 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 exclusive zone is not new. In March 2001, a Chinese frigate confronted the oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch in the Yellow Sea. The following month, a Chinese jet fighter crashed off Hainan, killing the pilot, after it collided in mid-air with a US Navy EP-3 electronic surveillance plane.

The American aircraft was so badly damaged that it had to make an emergency landing on Hainan, where the crew of 24 was detained by the Chinese military for 11 days, straining US-China 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 exclusive economic zone in recent years, and Hanoi has protested at Chinese military exercises in Vietnam's claimed zone.

China's claims to ownership of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea bring 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 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 that China has "indisputable sovereignty" over the widely scattered Spratly archipelago and "their 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 major users of the South China Sea, such as the US, Japan and South Korea, could be high.

There is already a voluntary code of conduct in the South China Sea between Association of Southeast Asian Nations members and China, designed to prevent conflict. There is also a set of non-binding guidelines for navigation and overflight in East Asia's exclusive economic zones.

However, 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 that small-scale clashes do not spiral into something far more serious.

Michael Richardson is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. mriht@pacific.net.sg