By Wu Shicun
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the DOC, a special year for China and ASEAN countries who are committed to peace and stability as well as maritime cooperation in the South China Sea. Taking this as an opportunity, they need to review their experience and learn lessons. Starting with building consensus and enhancing mutual trust, they need ...
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By Nguyen Hong Thao, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong
It is conceivable that the South China Sea Arbitral Award will continue to be a helpful guide leading the concerned parties to develop a viable rules-based order in the South China Sea, rather than allowing the region to become a 'might makes ...
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By Ho Hong Hanh
China announced its new Coast Guard Law containing worrisome provisions that need further clarification. Japan, a prominent claimant in the East China Sea, feels threatened by this law.
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By Hoang Do
China recently announced that it had successfully cultivated vegetables on Woody Island to meet food demand. But this crop serves more than a nutritional purpose.
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By Nguyen Hong Thao
Any country that does not make a drastic response to the Chinese claims right from the start, will one day become a victim.
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By Nguyen Hong Thao
The US communication added a voice to the common position of Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia on consideration of UNCLOS as the sole legal basis for defining, in a comprehensive and exhaustive manner, the scope of their respective maritime entitlements in ...
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By Vo Ngoc Diep
The note seems to indicate, for the first time, an official Vietnamese position on the legal status of all high-tide features in both the Spratly and Paracel Islands. It implies that all high-tide features in the Spratly Islands, as well as in ...
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By Quach Thi Huyen
"Four-Sha" is a lens through which Chinese long-term ambitious claims over the South China Sea is fully exposed. The current global health crisis provides a window of opportunity for the realisation of Chinese lofty hegemonic dream. While the international community may ...
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By Nguyen Hong Thao
The 2019 Malaysian partial CLCS submission renewed the legal exchanges over the South China Sea. Most of the claimants, except China and Brunei, through their statements and actions, expressed acceptance and support for the 2016 Tribunal Award.
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By Derek Grossman and Logan Ma
If history is a good indication of what to expect in the future, then Beijing is likely to double down on the Maritime Militia in virtually any scenario imaginable. That means it should be a force to be reckoned in the ...
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By Do Thanh Hai
Though recent allegations raise more questions than they provide answers, they should reinforce the need for greater transparency in the South China Sea.
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By Koki Sato
The international community should better understand how potential aggressors can leverage the ambiguity for low-level armed attack or aggression and be prepared to clearly identify it as an internationally wrongful act.
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By Ulises Granados
As it might be difficult for China and the Philippines to defend their official claims over Scarborough as their own territory before the 20th century in an international court, both countries should engage in constructive negotiations over joint development. This is ...
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By Nguyen Hong Thao
The submission by Malaysia represents a positive step forward for coastal states in the SCS to clarify their claims and seriously discuss maritime delimitation in accordance with UNCLOS and the interpretation of its article 121 (3) by the 2016 Tribunal Award.
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By Nguyen Hong Thao
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is one of the most important achievements of international law and the UN in the 20th century and continues to assert its role as the "Constitution of the Seas and ...
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By Constantinos Yiallourides
Energy exploration by China and Turkey within the national waters of other nations is contrary to international law – it is upon the international community to steer recalcitrant states towards obedience.
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By Lan Nguyen
As long as the claimant states continue to stand up to China’s excessive claims and defend their legitimate claims endorsed by the arbitral award, and as long as other states around the world do not turn a blind eye to the ...
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By Luc Anh Tuan
While China can gain some ground in short term by flexing its muscle, it would risk greater backlash from its neighbors and collective actions from the international community in the long run. China should not interpret regional countries’ patience and restraint ...
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By Swee Lean Collin Koh
Unless there is a firm international response against Chinese actions in Vanguard Bank, there could be similar repeats in the coming years simply because Beijing realises to its glee that coercion pays. It will thereby embolden not only China, but other ...
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By Viet Phuong Nguyen
The operation of the fleet of Chinese floating nuclear power plants in the South China Sea carries with it numerous safety and security risks that may have widespread consequences to not only China but also to Southeast Asia and beyond.
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By Hideshi Tokuchi
East Asia is a huge seascape. As a result, the sea’s connecting power is of a priceless importance to the entire region. The rules-based international maritime order is in everyone’s interest, including Japan.
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By Nguyen Thi Lan Anh
Although the South China Sea award has brought much clarity to the scope of the disputes and opened possibilities for peaceful dispute management, the situation in the South China Sea in the past year tends to tell a different story.
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By Helmut Tuerk
The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) established three institutions: the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).
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By Gregory Poling
The desire to see Chinese diplomatic softening as a sign of a new status quo is understandable, and it is important that the door be left open for Beijing to deescalate. But China’s recent behavior should be seen as the best ...
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By Andrew O’Neil
The decision in July 2016 by a special tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration to dismiss the legitimacy of China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea has raised significant questions about how this issue should be managed in ...
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By You Ji
The possibility of standoffs among the Spratly disputants and especially between China and the US may have increased with the ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal on 12 July 2016. The award has invalidated Beijing’s basis for Spratly patrols based on the ...
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By Bing Ling
The conflicts in the South China Sea have a substantial legal dimension. The disputes over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights are classical subjects of international law. UNCLOS provides a comprehensive framework of international rules on the maritime claims of the riparian ...
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By Tetsuo Kotani
The great geostrategist Nicholas Spykman once described the South China Sea as the ‘Asiatic Mediterranean’ to emphasise its importance in Asian geopolitics. Just as the Roman Empire sought control over the Mediterranean and the United States over the Caribbean in pursuit ...
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By Hasjim Djalal
This article primarily looks at the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to give content to the notions of maritime cooperation and ocean governance. It indicates certain areas of tension and specifically focusses on the South China Sea ...
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This session assesses the utility of international law in managing and resolving the South China Sea disputes in the post-award context of the Philippines-China arbitration case at the Arbitration Tribunal set up under Annex VII of the UNCLOS. Arguably the long-awaited ...
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