South China Sea disputes: can Beijing keep it bilateral despite high-seas clashes?

Beijing’s high-handed assertion of maritime claims has drawn international censure, putting its preferred approach of bilateral solutions at risk

Reading Time:6 minutes

Published: 6:00am, 2 Jul 2024Updated: 11:20am, 3 Jul 2024

Flare-ups between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea have drawn greater regional and even global attention, posing a challenge to Beijing’s preference for a bilateral approach to resolving maritime disputes.

Beijing is deeply concerned about the internationalisation of the South China Sea dispute, according to observers, even as its high-handed approach to asserting its expansive claims to the resource-rich waters spark concern, criticism and even resentment.

“The South China Sea issue has long been internationalised, which is definitely not something Beijing would like to see,” a senior researcher from the government-linked Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said on condition of anonymity. “But that’s the new reality we have to live with.”

High-seas confrontations have intensified as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, unlike his Beijing-friendly predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, pursues a “paradigm shift” in policy to counter China’s maritime assertiveness, bolstering Manila’s defence alliance with the US despite repeated warnings from Beijing.

02:06

Marcos Jnr says Manila determined to use diplomacy to resolve South China Sea row with Beijing

Manila has also expanded its network of security partnerships – including with Japan, Australia, India and the European Union – and dialled up protests against what it says is Beijing’s aggressive behaviour in the disputed waters.

More worryingly for Beijing, according to the CASS researcher, a growing number of countries in Asia, Europe and beyond have followed Washington’s lead in not only putting forward Indo-Pacific strategies but also sending warships to the South China Sea for patrols and exercises.