China’s great Asian land grab

China’s great Asian land grab

By Jonathan Manthorpe | Aug 7, 2014 

A protester sets an inverted Chinese flag on fire at a rally against China's recent land reclamations on various reefs in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea Monday, June 9, 2014, in Manila, Philippines. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez

Beijing today signalled its disdain for a Southeast Asian regional summit set for this weekend, where China’s aggressive pursuit of its disputed territorial claims will be high on the agenda.

Chinese state media quoted a Maritime Safety Administration official as saying his department plans to build five lighthouses on islands in the South China Sea that are also claimed by Vietnam.

The Chinese announcement is a clear thumbing of the nose at the summit of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Burma this weekend, which will attempt to head off the prospect of conflict by calling for a moratorium on “provocative and destabilising activities.” That, according to the Philippines — which is proposing the moratorium and has had some of the most violent confrontations with Chinese vessels — would include building of new outposts and structures on disputed islands.

Beijing officials have underlined their attitude towards the summit by saying they consider the Philippines’ call for a “voluntary freeze” as just another example of efforts by the United States to contain China’s growing diplomatic and military power and influence. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has indicated he will support the moratorium at the summit.

Known as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the summit includes foreign ministers from the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), plus officials from 17 countries with interests in the region, including Canada, Australia, India, Russia, the European Union, China, Japan and South Korea. Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird toured the region in recent days and signaled a revived Canadian interest in Southeast Asia by announcing he will establish a new diplomatic mission dedicated to relations with ASEAN.

China claims almost all the South China Sea as its exclusive territory, including hundreds of islands, islets, reefs and shoals in the Paracel and Spratly chains. Beijing’s claim extends right down to the territorial waters of Indonesia, over 1,500 kilometres from the closest undisputed Chinese territory at Hainan Island.

Beijing has been increasingly aggressive in asserting its claim in recent years, and its coast guard and maritime surveillance ships have had confrontations — sometimes violent — with vessels from Vietnam and the Philippines, which also claim islands in the two chains. China’s claim also covers islands and waters within the exclusive maritime zones of Brunei and Malaysia, though there have not been direct confrontations with the armed forces of those countries so far.

Beijing has dismissed all criticism of its activities by simply asserting that it has ‘indisputable sovereignty’ over most of the South China Sea. ‘The Spratly Islands are China’s intrinsic territory, and what China does or doesn’t do is up to the Chinese government,’ a spokesman told Reuters.

China’s aggression in the South China Sea mirrors its activities in the East China Sea, where its ships and warplanes are in almost daily face-offs with the Japanese military over the Senkaku Islands — owned by Japan, claimed by China.

The rival claims in the South China Sea turned deadly in May when China moved a deep-sea oil rig into waters around the Paracel Islands claimed by Vietnam. Outraged Vietnamese rioted against Chinese businesses in Vietnam and several people were killed. At sea, a Chinese boat rammed and sank a Vietnamese ship near the oil rig.

In March, Chinese ships blocked Philippines vessels from re-supplying a military outpost on one of the islands in the Spratly chain. Beijing recently established a faux “administration” over the Spratly Archipelago, and it has been discovered the Chinese are artificially expanding several islands, apparently with the intention of building landing strips and military outposts.

Beijing has dismissed all criticism of its activities by simply asserting that it has “indisputable sovereignty” over most of the South China Sea. “The Spratly Islands are China’s intrinsic territory, and what China does or doesn’t do is up to the Chinese government,” Yi Xianliang, deputy director of the Boundary and Ocean Affairs Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told the Reuters news agency on Monday.

China bases its claim on old maps and the assertion that its fishing boats have worked the sea’s waters for hundreds of years. But most experts on the law of the sea regard Beijing’s claim as insubstantial.

Canada’s interest in the Asian territorial disputes stems largely from its commitments to support maritime security in the region with allies Japan, South Korea, the U.S. and Australia. Washington is also driven by its responsibility to support those regional allies, as well as the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and, increasingly, the other littoral states of the South China Sea like Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

About half the world’s seaborne trade travels the shipping lanes of the South China Sea, and Washington is also concerned that if Beijing can impose effective sovereignty it will try to regulate this traffic. The U.S. also has to worry about the free passage of warships on the high seas.

China undoubtedly will do all it can to prevent formal discussion of the Philippines’ motion for a freeze on “provocative and destabilising activities” at the ARF summit being held in Naypyidaw, the capital of Burma, also known as Myanmar.

At past summits, Beijing has used threats of economic repercussions for the ARF and ASEAN host nations, who have considerable influence over the meetings’ agendas. In 2012, Beijing convinced then-host Cambodia to block all discussion of the South China Sea disputes.

Whether Beijing can use its divide-and-rule tactic on Burma is less certain. Since the military regime gave way to civilian rule in 2011, the Naypyidaw government has on several occasions responded to anti-Beijing public opinion by pointedly opposing Chinese economic interests.

But whatever the ARF meeting decides, only one thing is certain: Beijing will take no notice and will continue its imperial expansion.

Jonathan Manthorpe has been a foreign correspondent and international affairs columnist for nearly 40 years. He was European bureau chief for the Toronto Star and then Southam News in the late 1970s and the 1980s. In 1989 he was appointed Africa correspondent by Southam News and in 1993 was posted to Hong Kong to cover Asia. For the last few years he has been based in Vancouver, writing international affairs columns for what is now the Postmedia Group. He left the group last year and now writes for a range of newspapers and websites.jonathan.manthorpe@gmail.com

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