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China has a strong interest in pursuing a smart power strategy towards Southeast Asia and has worked laboriously to engage with regional countries economically, socially, and politically. But China has been only partially successful in achieving its goals in the region. This paper argues that China’s security policy towards Southeast Asia significantly contradicts many other objectives that Beijing wishes to accomplish. Given the deep-seated, narrowly-defined national interests of the Chinese military in the South China Sea disputes, it is likely that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will continue to pose the main obstacle to the effective implementation of a Chinese smart strategy in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China is pressing ahead with the negotiation on a code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea with remarkable resolve. The new COC-centred diplomacy was motivated to suppress the impact of the Philippines versus China arbitral ruling, de-escalate regional tension and promote cooperation, especially the Belt and Road Initiative. It also serves as a broad strategic goal, i.e. preserving stability by banishing the ruling and creating a new diplomatic process with China exercising some control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China and most Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) memberstates share a common bond in the South China Sea due to their geographical designation and contiguity as maritime nations and littoral states to this strategic waterway. Indeed, the significance of this semi-enclosed sea to their respective as well as mutual geo-strategic and geo-economic interests has made maritime cooperation a critical, if not compulsory agenda in the overall vision and framework of China-ASEAN engagements. Such importance has been underlined by the Chinese-sponsored Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century (MSR) agenda and its related programmes, which serve as the blueprint for enhanced China-ASEAN maritime cooperation especially in the South China Sea. However, sceptics/critics have pinpointed that these Chinese-driven agendas are not new, and that the maritime ASEAN states' responses have been somewhat lukewarm. Undeniably, Beijing's efforts have been largely hampered by its longstanding maritime-territorial disputes in the South China Sea vis-à-vis several ASEAN member-states, and perhaps even more so, by its growing assertiveness in handling the imbroglio. Not only has it created a "trust deficit", China's South China Sea policy has also encouraged the affected ASEAN claimant-states to "balance" or "hedge" against unpredictable Chinese strategic behaviour by rekindling security relations with and soliciting intervention from non-resident powers in the region. Such apparent "contradictions" pose political and even military challenges to maritime cooperation between China and ASEAN countries. This article addresses the South China Sea "problematique" by firstly providing an overview of China-ASEAN maritime cooperation, and by extension, China-ASEAN relations, as well as the South China Sea maritimeterritorial debacle, from both past and present vantage points. It then examines the mutual motivation and drivers behind the aforesaid initiatives to propel maritime cooperation, before deliberating on the contending issues and challenges in the disputed waters that could derail such an ambitious strategic vision. Lastly, it explores the way forward and prospects for the South China Sea to become a "sea of cooperation" that could facilitate the MSR agenda, and ultimately the realization of greater China-ASEAN maritime cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses conflict in the South China Sea and its Islands, focusing on a lack of resolution of disputes over sovereignty and control involving China and ASEAN countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines. The author highlights international, regional, and bilateral strategies for resolving conflict in the South China Sea, including discussions of a lack of involvement by the United Nations (U.N.), Track-2 (nongovernmental) diplomacy efforts, and foreign relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Vietnam. It is suggested that balancing strategies involving outside countries such as the U.S. may preserve the status quo in the South China Sea region.

The unresolved maritime claims to all, or parts, of the South China Sea involve Vietnam, Malaysia. the Philippines. Brunei, Taiwan, and China, and have hindered the development of the hydrocarbon resources there. Rising oil prices and China's voracious appetite for energy have stimulated greater interest in the exploitation of the area's oil reserves. Despite the uncertainty, ASEAN countries have involved energy companies in exploration and drilling in their respective claims. Cooperation arrangements between national oil companies including Chinese have been negotiated which hold out the prospect of greater security, even in the absence of a settlement of the maritime claims. Energy cooperation may stabilize the South China Sea providing a secure operating environment for oil exploitation. In time, the way could be prepared for further steps which would involve the claimants in negotiations over a resolution of the maritime claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]