UNCLOS
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Law and realpolitik in the South China Sea
China’s rejection of the international process represented by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague is both a missed opportunity and a disappointing corollary to its intransigence on the South China Sea dispute. Beijing’s visceral opposition to third-party arbitration is based on the suspicion that the process is a means of exerting political pressure on […]
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Don’t Be Fooled by China’s Cooperation Lately. Xi Jinping Wants to Reform the International Order.
Last month, China showed its cooperative side to the international community. It struck an ambitious climate deal with the U.S. that President Xi Jinping announced alongside President Obama. It took a seat at the P5+1 talks in Vienna to negotiate a path forward for Iran’s nuclear program. And it responded to the United Nation’s call […]
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World View: Philippines and Vietnam Launch Military and Legal Buildup to Confront China
China, Lawfare, Militariy Conflict, Philippines, Position Paper, South China Sea Dispute, UNCLOS, VietnamPhilippine troop and Chinese maritime police boat confrontation at Second Thomas Reef With China taking aggressive military actions to annex Philippine and Vietnamese territories in the South China Sea, both of these countries are building up the military capabilities, though nothing that their plan would have more than a small token resistance when facing the […]
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Beijing ignores court deadline over disputes in South China Sea
China’s government has ignored a deadline to outline its territorial claims in the South China Sea to an international court. The government had until yesterday to submit its case to a court of arbitration in The Hague in the Netherlands. The case was bought by the Philippines, but a foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing, Qin […]
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Vietnam delivered when Philippines needed it most
Arbitration, ASEAN, China, Code of Conduct, Paracels, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, UNCLOS, VietnamIt means a lot to the Philippines that Vietnam submitted a Position Paper to the Arbitral Tribunal of the United Nations that is handling the complaint filed by the Philippines against China on the conflict in the South China Sea. Probably so as not to further antagonize China, with whom the Philippines has rekindled relations […]
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China ignores deadline to respond to PH case
MANILA, Philippines – China missed the deadline to respond to the Philippines’ historic arbitration case on the South China Sea, reaffirming that it rejects the legal process. On the December 15 deadline, China’s foreign ministry reiterated that Beijing “will neither accept nor participate” in the proceedings before The Hague-based arbitral tribunal. China had only until […]
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Opinion: The Expanding Assault on China’s South China Sea Claims
China’s ambiguous claim to the South China Sea, approximately demarcated by a series of hash marks known as the “nine-dashed line,” faced objections from an expanding number of parties over the past two weeks. While a challenge from the United States came from an unsurprising source, actions by Indonesia and Vietnam were unexpected in their […]
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Will China accept international law in the South China Sea?
The ongoing disputes between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea are about to reach a critical point. In January 2013 the Philippines activated procedures under Article 287 and Annex VII of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over a dispute about the validity of China’s ‘nine-dash line’ […]
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From “Assuring Freedom of Navigation” to “Drill, Baby, Drill” in the South China Sea
Analysis, Arbitration, China, Oil, Paracels, Philippines, South China Sea Dispute, Spratlys, UNCLOS, VietnamAs I predicted a while back, the United States has quietly ditched its old, underperforming pretext for confrontation in the South China Sea and is sidestepping into a new justification. I do not care deeply about America’s stake in the South China Sea so I have little interest in slogging through recent American & Chinese contributions to […]
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China moves from ‘restraint’ to ‘resolve’ in South China Sea
The perfect storm for geopolitical instability: high emotions, high levels of resolve, and low levels of communication and coordination. This characterisation applies to crises such as in eastern Ukraine and Syria. It may also describe a long-simmering dispute in the South China Sea which has the potential to escalate dramatically. Linda Jakobson’s latest paper explains […]