REALISM AND THE CHINESE ATTITUDES TOWARD UNCLOS: THE SOUTH CHINA SEA ARBITRATION AS A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is a multilateral international agreement that was enacted to set some common rules governing the use and transit through the oceans, in light of their status as a vital resource of mankind. It is one of the most successful multi- lateral treaties ever adopted, with 168 states parties at the time of this writing. However, we can see compliance is not perfect. Case in point, China has started to reinterpret or outright disregard some provisions of the treaty. In particular, its dismissal of the mandatory dispute resolution provision is the most telling example of the latter. But why would a state want to go against a regime that establishes clear rules for all parties, one that is widely upheld. The answer has to do with security. This article argues that we can explain China’s has dismissed international adjudi- cation under UNCLOS if we are aware of what its security interests are and how in so doing it might increase their relative power vis-a-vis other actors in the region. In other words, if we analyze the People’s Republic of China’s actions using the theory of international relations known as realism.