China’s policy towards the South China Sea: when geopolitics meets the law of the sea

Author(s): Lingqun Li

ISBN: 978-1-138-06736-3

Publisher: Routledge

Year: 2018

Reviewed by Dr. Aditi Paul, Research Associate, Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement, Kathmandu, Nepal.

China claims more than half of South China Sea on the grounds of its discovery. Counterparts like Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Philippines, put forward their own historical narratives. In addition, the extra-regional powers like United States, have raised the tensions. This multilateral nature of South China Sea dispute has made conflict resolution complicated. It is in this backdrop that the book titled China’s Policy Towards the South China Sea: When Geopolitics Meets the Law of the Sea by Lingqun Li carefully examines China’s evolving nature of assertive policies towards the South China Sea, and describes them in the light of the international maritime laws. In order to accomplish this goal, the book sets out to investigate: 1) China’s legal justification on claims over South China Sea; 2) political engagement (confrontation, unilateralism, bilateralism, and multilateralism) between China and the disputant parties; 3) China’s practices of maritime regulations; and 4) management of China’s strategic position and resolution of South China Sea dispute.

Lingqun Li is a research fellow at the Nanjing University, China. This book is primarily based on her doctoral dissertation. Moreover, the book is part of an ongoing Routledge series titled Contemporary Issues in the South China Sea which seeks to explore the topic of South China Sea and the competing claims over sovereignty by states from an interdisciplinary approach.

China’s Policy is a response to the literature on South China Sea. Li argues that the existing literature not only provides an incomplete and analytically weak account of China’s South China Sea policy but also overlooks a trend in how China manages its territorial disputes: land and maritime. She reminds readers that while China has settled most of the land boundary disputes through peaceful diplomacy, maritime disputes are still unsettled and therefore requires further introspection.

The book is divided into eight chapters (excluding introduction) demonstrating maritime law as an independent and influential player in international politics. Li’s central argument has been that China’s South China Sea policy has been primarily sculpted by two aspects: 1) the legal and institutional regime of Law of Sea at regional and international levels; and 2) the shifting intra-regional geostrategic dynamics. The author recognizes that while geopolitics is central to strategic adjustments by sovereign states, it is the international maritime regime and the institutional bindings that goes a long way in influencing state responses and solutions to a dispute. To arrive at this conclusion, Li elaborates the changing dynamics of maritime regime which she argues is creating “a blend of incentives and pressure that shapes the calculus of the Chinese leadership” (p.5).

Each chapter in the book charts China’s legal position in the South China Sea dispute under different time periods and examines the changes and continuities in China’s South China Sea Policy. Chapter 1 offers an overview of the theory of constructivism. Li argues that regimes such as, Law of Sea under United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) III and United Nations Charter are social constructs that has turned the South China Sea dispute from zero-sum game to a multidimensional non-zero-sum game. Chapter 2 examines the issue of maritime sovereignty. Li reviews the justifications of the main claimants in the pre-1971 era (People’s Republic of China and Republic of Vietnam). Chapter 3 analyses China’s participation in the UNCLOS III and other maritime organizations which impacted Chinese perceptions on South China Sea disputes. Li argues that 1978 onwards China was exposed to negotiation processes and interaction with experts on technical, legal and policy information. As a result, Chinese delegations at international conferences became focussed and resorted to diplomacy and legal technicalities to prove their familiarity with maritime regime. In Chapter 4 Li focusses on the transformation of South China Sea dispute from traditional bilateral territorial issue to a complex multilateral web of conflicts with inconclusive results. Li argues that since maritime norms intensified after 1980, China began to adopt the vision of joint development and promulgated several domestic laws in line with international standards.

Chapter 5 examines multilateral institutions and its influence on the Chinese leaders in the 1990s. Li cites the example of how China internalised and adjusted its legal position in relation to the South China Sea and argues that in the 1990s the institutional architecture of regional organisations (namely ASEAN) began to create a geostrategic pressure on China to identify and define South China Sea problem through cooperative action or multilateralism. Chapter 6 situates the discussion in the years 2002-2013 when a series of events forced China to respond and internalize modern maritime governance though domestic legislations. Li argues that this time period marked a consistency in Chinese efforts to conform with maritime laws. On the other hand, chapter 7 examines the developments 2013 onwards especially the South China Sea Arbitration case wherein Philippines pressured China to demonstrate its commitment to international community. Li contends that the arbitration case evoked a debate about China’s lock-in effect in the UNCLOS.

Chapter 8 bookends with a summary and policy recommendations. This chapter provides an interesting section that suggests future research questions. Li hopes that future research can focus on how multilateral negotiations impact the management of South China Sea dispute? How extra-regional powers confront China and/or support ASEAN states? And whether it is possible to integrate multilateral and bilateral approaches?

The book explores one of the most complicated inter-state disputes in Asia. Li attempts to provide a comprehensive assessment of China’s policy towards South China Sea. While the geopolitical pressure influences states to resolve long-standing disputes, regimes and institutional laws have a definite lock-in effect upon its members leading to legal progression on dispute settlement. Li contends that China’s policy towards South China Sea has been majorly influenced by the normative pressures of multilateral institutions which prescribe instruments like consultations and political engagement instead of war. Therefore, the views of the author are valid.

China’s Policy is a strategic assessment of China’s sovereign claims on South China Sea and how China began to get attuned to the maritime regimes alongside the pressures created by extra-regional powers like United States, India, Australia, and Japan. While the book is suited to bolster deeper understanding of the field of Chinese and Southeast Asian studies, the manuscript lacks professional expertise in turning a doctoral thesis into a book. There are inconsistencies in the flow as well as technical glitches in the body of the text. Nevertheless, it does not diminish the contribution Li made by writing China’s Policy. The book will be resourceful for early researchers as well as established scholars of Chinese and Asian politics, international law, international relations, and security studies.