Is America Getting Ready to Ship Its 'Big Guns' to the South China Sea?

May 20, 2017 Topic: Security Region: Asia Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: South China SeaMilitaryWorldU.S.TechnologyChina

Is America Getting Ready to Ship Its 'Big Guns' to the South China Sea?

Having mobile counter-air weapons such as the M109 Paladin, able to fire 155m precision rounds on-the-move, could prove to be an effective air-defense deterrent against Chinese weapons in the region. 

Army officials have also called for the support a potential adaptation of the RGM-84 Harpoon and the development of boost-glide entry warheads able to deploy “to hold adversary shipping at risk all without ever striking targets inland.

Boost-glide weapons use rocket-boosted payload delivery vehicles that glide at hypersonic speeds in the atmosphere. An increase in the Army’s investment in boost-glide technology now could fast track the Army’s impact in the region. 

UN Law of the Sea Convention

The group of highly disputed islands south of China in the South China Sea, called the Spratly Islands, are rich in resources and of strategic geographical importance in the Pacific region. Some of the islands are claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan, 

Pentagon officials have widely criticized an ongoing Chinese effort to erect artificial structures nearby or on top of its claimed island territories in the Spratly Islands. Called “land reclamation” by the Pentagon, the activity has added more than 4,000 acres to island territories claimed by China.

 

The ongoing “land reclamation” by China in the area appears to be a rather transparent attempt by China to reinforce and bolster extended territorial claims in the South China Sea.

 However, the Law of the Sea Convention does not recognize artificial or man-made structures and legitimate island territories to be claimed. Therefore, the U.S and its Pacific allies do not support or agree with China’s aggressive territorial claims.  In fact, citing the definition of islands articulated in the Law of the Sea Convention, Pentagon officials do not recognize the artificial structures as islands – but instead refer to the effort as “land reclamation.”

 The U.S. position is grounded in several key provisions of the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention, which specifies that man-made or artificial structures do not define or “constitute” legitimate island territory. The Law of the Sea also specifies that sovereign territory of a given country extend 12 miles off the coastline.

Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, negotiated in the 1980s and updated in the 1990s, an island is defined as a “naturally formed area of land above the water at high tide.” Also, article 60 of the U.N. Convention says “artificial islands are not entitled to territorial seas.”

As a result, Pentagon officials have stressed that US military forces will continue to conduct freedom of navigation exercises at sea and in the air to the extent they wish – in a manner consistent with international law. On several occasions, Navy ships have deliberately sailed within a 12-mile boundary of China’s claimed territory.

Navy officials tell Scout Warrior that they may conduct additional maritime freedom of navigation exercises as well. Naturally, neither Air Force or Navy officials wish to signal any particular plans or specify a time when this may happen – however both services are clear to explain that operations of this kind are likely to continue.

 "The South China Sea is international waterspace where the U.S. Navy will continue to operate. While we cannot comment on specific operations in the South China Sea, the United States does take a strong position on upholding the principles of international law, unimpeded lawful commerce, freedom of navigation and overflight, and peaceful resolution of disputes," a Navy Spokesman told Scout Warrior.

In the past, senior leaders from China’s People’s Liberation Army have asserted that the South China Sea “belongs to China,” echoing an often-mentioned mentioned Chinese territorial claim – called the nine-dash-line dating back many years – indicates that the South China Sea in its entirety is Chinese territory.

China appears to claim most, if not all of the South China Sea through its so-called nine-dash line, which vaguely asserts control, access and sovereignty over 1.4 million square miles of islands, Pentagon officials said.

Although U.S. officials say China has not clearly articulated what it means, the nine-dash line can be traced back to China’s ruling party from 1928 to 1949 – the Koumintang. The Koumintang retreated to Taiwan in 1949 when the Communist Party of China took over following civil war in the country, however the concept of the nine-dash line has endured.

Naturally, U.S. senior officials and U.S. allies in the region do not recognize this Chinese claim either.

The U.N. treaty also specifies that up to 200 miles off the coast of a country is consider part of an economic exclusive zone, or EEZ. This means the host country has exclusive first rights to resources and any economic related activities. As a result, China’s “island” building could bring implications for EEZs as well.

This means countries cannot, for instance, fish in the waters of an EEZ or set up an oil-drilling effort without securing the permission of the host country. However, activities within an EEZ that do not relate to economic issues are allowed as part of the freedoms associated with the high seas, Pentagon officials explained.

This first appeared in Scout Warrior here