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Francis P Sempa

 The South China Sea Disputes: Historical, Geopolitical and Legal Studies
edited by Tsu-Sung Hsieh
World Scientific
3.5 stars
This latest volume in a series on contemporary China published by World Scientific looks at the historical, geopolitical, and legal aspects of the disputes over the South China Sea and its islands, reefs, and rocks.
Edited by Tsu-Sung Hsieh, a retired Taiwanese navy captain and professor at the Ming Chuan University School of Law in Taipei, The South China Sea Disputes: Historical, Geopolitical and Legal Studies is composed of papers presented at the 2017 South China Sea Conference by scholars from Taiwan, China, the Philippines, and the United States.
The South China Sea – The Struggle for Power in Asia
The South China Sea is one of the major flashpoints of world politics. China claims the entire sea as its territory – via the now much discussed nine-dash line. This claim is countered by rival claims of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia. The United States’ interest is part legal – freedom of navigation – and part geopolitical – preventing Chinese hegemony in East Asia and beyond.
In 2016, the international tribunal at The Hague sided with the Philippines against China and the latter’s expansive claims in the South China Sea. China has ignored the ruling, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction over the dispute – a legal position supported by Professor Tsu in the book’s final chapter.

Similarly, in another chapter, historian Man-houng Lin of National Taiwan Normal University supports China’s position that The Hague Tribunal “is not the right place for settling” the South China Sea disputes.
She believes that the arbitration tribunal and the UN have overlooked the significance of the Taipei Treaty of 1952, in which Japan surrendered “all right, title, and claim to the Paracel and the Spratly Islands” to the Republic of China on Taiwan.
As a result, the South China Sea, she writes, is not the “inner sea” of any country and all interested countries should each have their exclusive economic zones without impinging on the rights of any other country. She believes that both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) – as Taiwan is officially called – would benefit from such a resolution.

Nanjing University professor Chen Qianping reviews the Nationalist Chinese government’s efforts to recover sovereignty over the islands of the South China Sea, including the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands), Woody Island (Yongxing Island), Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands), Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands), and Taiping, islands after the second world war. The Nationalists, he writes, complied with international law in reclaiming those islands.
Both history and international law, he asserts, support the PRC’s sovereignty over the South China Sea. Implicit in this analysis is the PRC’s official position that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China.
But it won’t be history or international law that ultimately decides the South China Sea disputes – it will be geopolitics. The most important articles in the book by Nathan Kuanghua Liu and Jay L. Batongbacal analyse the broader China-US rivalry and its impact on the South China Sea disputes.

China’s “increasingly coercive maritime policies” in the context of President Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream”, which includes the Belt and Road Initiative, is a long-term challenge to the US-led world order.
For now, however, China and the US compete in some areas and cooperate in others. The South China Sea, North Korea’s ambitions and the always dangerous issue of Taiwan’s status could result in conflict unless wiser heads prevail. US policy has veered between engagement and containment.
How Macau helped European Enlightenment thought reach China 
“The million dollar question,” writes Liu, “is will China overthrow the existing order set by the US and replace its role in the region, or will China coexist peacefully with the US?” It is a question on the minds of statesmen throughout the world.
Asian Review of Books


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South China Sea

The South China Sea’s history and role in international politics – a scholarly view

An aerial photo of Chinese dredging vessels purportedly seen in the waters around the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters

Miltary bases in the South China Sea Military assets (4) China's jets CHINA (2) China's missiles Q PLA runway Taiwan Hong Kong China's "nine-dash" claim line L U ZO 7 Hainan Strait Yulin O naVal baSe O Woody Island N 423 PHILIPPINES - ParaCel Islands THAILAND O BaSa Air BaSe CAMBODA VETNAM Mji md0 r0 Strait Subi Reef Of Fiery Cross Reef O o Mischief Reef Iery CrOSS Ree  s Balaba C er Strait Spratly Islands MALAYSIA James Shoal

South China Sea Disputes cover

FILE - In this April 12, 2018, file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, the Liaoning aircraft carrier is accompanied by navy frigates and submarines conducting an exercises in the South China Sea. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has accused China of "intimidation and coercion" in the South China Sea, is visiting Beijing as the countries increasingly spar over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and Beijing's expanding military presence overseas. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP, File)

The South China Sea, its history and role in international politics examined by 12 experts in Great Powers, Grand Strategies

Retired US naval officers, university professors, think-tank scholars, and Asia experts examine China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea and their current and future geopolitical impact, and hope prudence and wisdom prevail

Great Powers cover

An aerial photo from a Philippine military plane showing the alleged ongoing land reclamation by China on Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, the Philippines. Photo: Reuters

Culture

Books

Edited by a Taiwanese law professor, this latest volume in a series on contemporary China examines the competing claims to the waterway and the geopolitics of one of the world’s major flashpoints


Edited by a Taiwanese law professor, this latest volume in a series on contemporary China examines the competing claims to the waterway and the geopolitics of one of the world’s major flashpoints.
