China’s increasing belligerence in South China Sea threatens international peace and regional stability

NEW DELHI: Vietnam has taken an appropriate decision by asking its citizens to fish legally after China attempted to put fishing limits in South China Sea where Beijing has yet again displayed aggression in last few weeks while the world is busy fighting Covid.
The unilateral action by China to ban fishing in SCS and threat fisherman is bullying tactic, according to experts. The threat by China to its neighbours must be met through solidarity and unity among China’s neighbours and members of the international community.

Vietnam rightfully is encouraging fishermen to stick to normal production within the limits of Vietnam’s territorial waters as it rejected China’s order of a seasonal ban from May 1 to August 16 in the South China Sea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the fishing ban, saying Vietnam rejects China’s unilateral decision

In early April, China sank a boat carrying Vietnamese fishers. Also last month, China reportedly sent a ship into disputed waters, possibly to explore for oil. Vietnam protested the operation.

Besides any move by China to impose ADIZ is a serious threat to peace, stability, freedom of aviation in region and international opinion must resist this move. There are reports that China is planning to set up an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea. An ADIZ is a country's airspace in which all civilian aircraft must identify themselves and announce their location. An ADIZ can provide a legal basis for denying foreign aircraft access to certain areas. An ADIZ can be used to boost a state’s ambitions. China’s East China Sea ADIZ has strengthened Beijing’s position vis-à-vis Japan in their disputes over the Senkaku (or Diaoyu) Islands

“Most observers believe that China’s declaration of an ADIZ in the South China Sea is just a matter of time. Two reasons are paramount to support this belief. First, China’s official statements suggest that it already has plans for the South China Sea ADIZ that are to be executed when time is ripe. Second, the facilities that China is building on the disputed islands in the South China Sea are too large for the need of the local communities. Some of these facilities include four three thousand-meter-long runways on Woody Island, Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef and Mischief Reef and a high-frequency radar station on Cuarteron Reef. China has also deployed to Woody Island long-range surface-to-air missiles that can reach two-hundred kilometers. In the eyes of many experts, the most logical application of these infrastructure and weapons systems is to support an ADIZ in the future,” according to an article titled ‘ADIZ in the South China Sea: Nine-Dash Line 2.0?’ published in The National Interest in 2016.

An ADIZ can perform one or more of at least six functions. Two of these functions (early warning mechanism and exclusion zone) require effective enforcement, while three other (sovereignty marker, bargaining chip and signaling device) rely more on a formal declaration.

The incidents led the United States to criticize China. American officials said China was using the crisis of COVID-19 as a distraction from its aggressive acts in the South China Sea. The U.S called the behavior “coercive and unlawful.” It also deployed a U.S. war ship to the area.

Vice Admiral Bill Merz, commander of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said the U.S. would “continue to fly and sail freely,” as permitted by international law.

Retired United States Navy admiral James Stavridis in a recent article titled ‘A cold war is heating up in the South China Sea’ in The Japan Times wrote, “China wrongly claims most of it as territorial seas. And as relations between the United States and China deteriorate into coronavirus finger-pointing and election-year posturing, the chances for a conflict in those waters are rising. In recent weeks, several U.S. warships — including a destroyer I commanded in the early 1990s, the Barry — have been confronted by the Chinese while conducting patrols…They’re no legal basis for China to claim the entire South China Sea as its private lake. The argument has been firmly rejected by all other nations that surround that body of water, and by international courts.”

The China Coast Guard (CCG), the People's Liberation Army and other government agencies have not slackened their efforts to make the South China Sea their own and to enforce China's version of the law in the disputed maritime area.

This includes, in recent weeks, China dispatching a survey ship into Malaysia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for seabed investigations, colliding with and sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat, implementing a unilateral fishing moratorium on other nations, shadowing and lambasting US Navy (USN) warships passing through the region, and turning on a weapon control radar against a Philippine warship.

If that were not enough, on 18 April China declared two new municipal districts to control the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands. A day later, it published the Chinese names of 80 geographic and underwater features in the South China Sea. These are efforts to enforce a fait accompli and assert sovereignty in disregard to others' sensibilities.

The Chinese survey ship vessel Haiyang Dizhi 8, accompanied by several CCG and maritime militia vessels, encroached into Malaysia's EEZ on 16 April. This occurred in the vicinity of West Capella, a British drilling ship contracted to Petronas. The action can be seen as a Chinese protest against Malaysia's ongoing energy exploration in disputed waters. In response, the US Navy sailed three different warships nearby.

The region has long been the site of contention, but a picture has emerged of Beijing sensing and exploiting this opportunity to assert itself even more in the South China Sea.