Advertisement
Opinion | China’s disregard for Vietnamese sovereignty leaves region worse off
- Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea suggest that ‘might makes right’ and will keep tensions high
- To have any chance of agreeing how to share resources in the disputed sea, all claimants need to refrain from pushing dubious entitlements
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Approaching the third anniversary of the tribunal ruling in the Philippines’ favour against China over maritime entitlements in the South China Sea, it became clear that Beijing was no closer to adhering to the international court’s binding award.
Advertisement
Instead, China continued to demonstrate its disregard for the landmark July 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Beijing’s quest to establish a new status quo in the disputed waters of the South China Sea continues.
The stand-off between Vietnam and China over ongoing geological survey work by a Chinese vessel and its escorts – including a massive China Coast Guard vessel – highlights the new realities taking shape.
Hanoi and Beijing are no stranger to these sorts of stand-offs. In 2014, China-Vietnam relations hit a nadir over Chinese state-owned China National Offshore Oil moving its Hai Yang Shi You 981 oil platform into disputed waters.
In 2017, Chinese pressure on Vietnam, including a threat to use force, resulted in the suspension of an offshore natural gas project by Spanish firm Repsol in the southeast of Vietnam’s claimed exclusive economic zone, which China also claims.
Advertisement
This time, however, Chinese vessels are not only conducting energy survey work in disputed waters but actively coercing neighbouring claimant states away from contested probable hydrocarbon resources.
Advertisement