采光带波型:How to sort American interests in the South C...

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How to sort American interests in the South China Sea?

The security situation in the South China Sea is deteriorating in a way unseen since the mid-1990s. China’s challenge in the South China Sea—its expansive extralegal claims to maritime territory—demands a strong, clear, interest-based response.

By Walter Lohman


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American interests in the conflict are, in order of priority, as follows:  


1. Freedom of the Seas.  This is a bedrock, non-negotiable interest of the United States. The U.S. is the world’s preeminent seafaring nation. When it comes to the South China Sea—through which half of global shipping and most of Northeast Asia’s energy supplies transit—its position is consistent: All nations enjoy navigational rights and freedoms there that are qualitatively and quantitatively the same as those applicable on the high seas.


2. Treaty Ally in the Philippines.  The U.S. has wisely refrained from taking a position on the details of the six-sided South China Sea sovereignty dispute. But that does not mean it is neutral.


It has legal security obligations toward one of the claimants. The 1951 U.S.–Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty obliges the U.S. to “act to meet the common dangers” embodied in an attack on the territory of the Philippines or “its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.”


3. Peace and Security in the Sea Lanes.  The U.S. and Vietnam have no security treaty, but they do have shared interests in safeguarding peace and security in the western Pacific and in balancing growing China’s regional clout. It is in their mutual interest to internationalize the South China Sea dispute because none of the parties to the conflict, including Vietnam, is strong enough to deal with China bilaterally.


ASEAN’s Change of Heart


The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) made a grave error in its rush to conclude the 2002 Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. The Chinese are in clear violation of the declaration’s call to “exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability.” President Benigno Aquino III himself has identified “six to seven” incidents this year in violation of this principle.


Unfortunately, however, the Chinese are correct that the declaration stipulates that disputes be resolved through bilateral means between the “sovereign states directly concerned.”[3] The declaration does not support ASEAN’s current position that China must deal with ASEAN as a whole on the disputes.  


It is ASEAN that has had a change of heart—as well it should, because given China’s growing naval capacity and increasingly aggressive claims, time is not on its side. This change of heart has provided an opening for deeper U.S. involvement in mediating the conflict. ASEAN now realizes, as it should have in 2002, that only the presence of the United States is going to balance the scales in the Pacific in a way that facilitates peace, security, and mutual development. The Chinese charm offensive of the late 1990s and 2000s was not something to build upon.


That said, and recent headlines notwithstanding, Southeast Asia as a whole is not in a mood to “contain” China. The diplomatic credentials of any party helping to address the conflict, therefore, depend in part on its effort to deal constructively with China. In fact, some version of China’s official operating principle of “shelving disputes and seeking common development” is probably the only peaceful way out of the conflict. The problem has been that, beyond the rhetoric, the PRC is not operating in accordance with this principle.


A response to the challenge the Chinese are presenting in the South China Sea requires clear priorities. Positive U.S.–China relations are important context, not an “interest” in and of themselves. The intersection of U.S. and Chinese interests in the region and beyond is very narrow. Maintaining a positive relationship is not worth jeopardizing America’s real interests at stake: freedom of the seas, commitment to treaty allies, and peace and security in the Pacific.



Walter Lohman is Director of the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation.
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