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This paper aims to analyze the relationship between China's maritime security policy and territorial disputes in the gray zone in the South China Sea. The study examines this relationship through the strategy and means of Chinese maritime security policy, aiming to clarify the factors that influenced this policy to drag its territorial disputes into the gray zone. The article argues that the rivalries between countries in the region fostered by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) operated as an external pressure on China. Furthermore, geopolitical factors and the perception of the Chinese ruling elite have contributed to considering the UNCLOS as a threat to China's maritime interests in the South China Sea. Consequently, the Chinese maritime security policy seeks to shift the status quo in the region to establish China as a hegemonic regional power with its sphere of influence while avoiding an open war with its neighbors and the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article takes a critical look at the sovereignty claims surrounding the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands. The dispute has long plagued Sino-Japanese relations and is considered one of the key regional security hotspots, with the People's Republic of China mounting an active challenge to Japanese administrative control. This article reviews the case for sovereignty under both the discovery and the prescription principles. However, the article concludes that one cannot find a compelling case for sovereignty under either principle in favour of either claimants. The paper argues that this is due to the traditional insignificance of the islands prior to UNCLOS establishing exclusive economic zones. Rather, the article suggests that to facilitate a resolution to the disputes, the islands should not be classified as islands under UNCLOS as they do not meet the legal threshold for such a classification, either today or historically. If anything, the weakness of claims that contributes to the intractability of the dispute today shows that traditionally neither China nor Japan has considered these territories as islands in a manner that would be in the spirit of UNCLOS. While such a reclassification would not immediately resolve the dispute, it would be a significant step to remove incentives for the further pursuit of conflicting sovereignty over the islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the few rich powerful nations, the idea(l) that international law fosters development is a truism, but for the rest of the world, it might only be a promising vision or worse, an empty promise. I Contemporary International Law and China's Peaceful Development i - the first book in the publisher's "Modern China and International Economic Law" series - grapples with these paradoxes and attempts to address them, through a curated collection of papers by the late Professor Lingliang Zeng on various international law topics that concern China. In a quite circuitous fashion, this chapter concludes that the envisioned harmonious world is "consistent with the principles of contemporary international law" (p. 63) - a statement that seems to reverse the roles of international law and harmonious world, with the former now serving as the normative standard for the latter. [Extracted from the article]

China's Sea Power projection fundamentally contrasts with traditional Western thinking. The paper first looks into Mahan's theory of Sea Power and then analyses China's naval strategy and argues that China's interest in developing naval capabilities is primarily economic and China has no ambitions of hegemony or expansionism and believes in freedom of navigation. It concludes that first, China has built its PLA Navy to secure the legitimate maritime rights and interests of China. Second, for resolving maritime disputes, China believes in diplomatic means of negotiation and legal means by applying United Nations Convention of Law of Sea and other international maritime law. Third, China will not protect SLOCs and its overseas interests by acquiring naval bases and overseas possessions all over the world, but by establishing close cooperation with its strategic partners in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sovereignty in the maritime domain is governed by the international laws and conventions, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Maritime sovereignty is deeply contested and the view on it is diverse. While the idea of continental sovereignty got cemented over time, the concept of maritime territorial sovereignty remained fragile until the conclusion of UNCLOS negotiations in 1982. Although China was a part of the negotiating process and has ratified the Convention, its actions in the South China Sea (SCS) have frequently contravened with the UNCLOS. This paper argues, by employing the principles of sovereignty theory, that even though China has discarded the Permanent Court of Arbitration's (PCA) ruling in the case of The Republic of the Philippines vs The People's Republic of China, the ruling has set up a clear precedent, which shall be a cornerstone for future references on sovereignty issues in the maritime domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, maritime sovereignty disputes have become highly visible microcosms of broader contests between security orders in East Asia. Escalating tensions over seas provoke questions about how historical and territorial conceptions of sovereignty map onto maritime areas, and the continuing effectiveness of the so‐called "rules‐based order" in maintaining regimes for deciding jurisdiction of islands, rocks and other maritime land features. The paper examines sovereignty claims and the international law of the sea across various cases, including the contested claims over Dokdo/Takeshima, Senkaku/Diaoyu Dao and China's nine‐dash line. These case studies reveal the tensions between two legal regimes: territorial rules of acquisition (sovereignty) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This article concludes by considering the ways that the symbolic nature of these disputes has implications for the capacities of UNCLOS and other legal instruments in the US‐led "rules‐based order" to establish orderly relations among states in the maritime arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the South China Sea Arbitration, China resolutely decided to not appear, without even appointing its own arbitrator to an arbitration under Annex VII of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Many criticized this decision as unwise, and argued that the conventional litigation wisdom of contesting jurisdiction exclusively at the preliminary phase serves to better China's interests, since it would not prejudice its decision of nonappearance at the subsequent proceedings over merits. The validity of such a "wise" tactic rests upon bifurcation--the division of the proceedings into determination of jurisdiction and determination of merits. Bifurcation has been routinely practiced by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) but has not been used much in other forums of inter-state dispute settlement. The author undertakes the first investigation of 14 cases which eventually went to the UNCLOS arbitration (as of 2018). It finds that the majority of tribunals adopted ad hoc Rules of Procedures by which the tribunals retained discretion on the matter of bifurcation (discretionary bifurcation), and in practice the tribunal's flexibility terminates upon the rejection of the request to bifurcate. In contrast, Article 79 of the ICJ's Rules of Court, allows the Court to adjudicate on questions raised within a duly submitted preliminary objection, with no proceedings on the matter of bifurcation (rule-based bifurcation). This paper traces issues of bifurcation to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), to evaluate why and how in the ICJ bifurcation becomes a procedural right, finding that when rulebased bifurcation was added to the article governing preliminary objections in 1926, they believed jurisdictional objections deserved special treatment in the Rules of Court, allowing the Court to better handle jurisdiction of inter-state disputes which was confined by the consent of the parties. The subsequent revisions of the Rules of Court in 1936, 1946, 1972, 1978, and 2001 gradually but solidly provide that a party is entitled to bifurcation, notwithstanding a general belief that bifurcation reduces the Court's efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bay of Bengal is of vital strategic, economic and maritime importance, as the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Straits link South and Southeast Asia. The Bay is intrinsically rich in hydrocarbons and minerals. Several major rivers of Asia flow into the Bay and the adjoining seas creating vast sedimentary basins that have potential hydrocarbon deposits. The growing role of the Bay of Bengal as a reservoir of vital resources has contributed to the regional powers’ ability to exert influence in this arena. The changing dynamics are particularly relevant for India and China, whose rising economies are dependent on the steady flow of resources, most importantly oil. The geopolitics of the increasingly volatile South China Sea could possibly impact on India’s interests and relations with Southeast Asian countries. This paper examines whether China and India’s Indian Ocean strategies underpin greater cooperation, rather than competition to generate synergies in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China claims "historic rights" over the islands and other maritime features in the South China Sea. The Philippines contests these claims on the ground that they are incompatible with the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea. It initiated arbitration under Annex VII of the (UNCLOS) for a declaratory judgment to that effect. China rejected the arbitral procedure in part because of its 2006 Declaration which excludes all such disputes from the compulsory dispute settlement procedure of the Convention. This paper examines the recent award of the Arbitral Tribunal accepting jurisdiction over the some of the submissions made by the Philippines. It finds that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has very little to offer to decide on issues of sovereignty and associated issues of overlapping maritime entitlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li, Z.; Yue, R.J., and Liu, F., 2020. Management of maritime laws based on China's maritime power strategy. In: Al-Tarawneh, O. and Megahed, A. (eds.), Recent Developments of Port, Marine, and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 110, pp. 125–128. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Seas and oceans are the new space for the future survival and development of mankind. China's maritime power strategy is a new challenge to the management system of the maritime laws of China. Based on this strategy and its development goals, this paper explores the role of maritime law system in resolving nautical disputes and maintaining the peaceful development of the seas and oceans, moreover, it proposes some legal suggestions for protecting China's maritime rights and interests. The research results show that: there are many problems with China's maritime power strategy and the management system of maritime laws of China. Therefore, targeting at these problems, first, we must formulate the basic maritime laws and enhance the operability of the management of maritime laws; second, under the new international maritime order, we should accelerate the legislation progress of separate regulations in China, and build a sound maritime law management system in China; at last, we also need to deepen our research on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This paper aims to provide a research basis for safeguarding China's maritime rights and interests in the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Philippine claim to Bajo de Masinloc, otherwise referred to as Scarborough Shoal, finds solid basis in international law. The territorial claim of the Philippines over Bajo de Masinloc is strong relative to the claim of China as well as with respect to the principles on the acquisition of territory in international law, in particular, on the basis of effective occupation. The sovereign rights and jurisdiction asserted by the Philippines over the maritime entitlements of the features in Bajo de Masinloc are founded on principles of international law and consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both the Philippines and China have signed and ratified. This paper aims to examine the Philippine claim over Bajo de Masinloc particularly focusing on the 2012 standoff between the Philippines and China and the arbitration case filed by the Philippines against China over the West Philippine Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 8 March 2009, five Chinese vessels shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in close proximity to the US Naval Ship (USNS) Impeccable. This paper seeks to explain the incident and its aftermath in the context of Chinese coercive diplomacy. China's strategy, designed to motivate the US to cease surveillance operations near its militarily sensitive areas in the South China Sea, included three components: (1) the use of military provocation, (2) a coordinated media campaign, and (3) a challenge to US interpretations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). This study goes beyond traditional research on Chinese use of force to explain why China's coercive diplomatic campaign took the form it did. Only by understanding the nature and factors affecting Chinese coercive diplomacy can the US design the effective counter strategy needed to protect US regional and global interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]