Sea Claims Research Articles

Sovereignty as the Axis of State-Making: the Re-sovereignisation of the Republic of China/Taiwan’s South China Sea Claim

Abstract This article proposes to repostulate the sovereignty-statehood complex of the Republic of China (roc/Taiwan)—namely, the dynamism between its full-fledged sovereign capability and its indeterminate statehood—by using a critical-constructivist approach. To counter legal textualism and rigidity, a three-phase approach is developed to address the under-theorisation of this issue by analysing (1) the establishment of a modern nation-state governance system, (2) identifying the national of the nation-state polity, and (3) obtaining democratic authorisation of its sovereign practice. Therefore, a state should not be considered a static edifice but an ongoing process, fraught with re-instantiations of sovereign exercises via consistent practices, through which criteria of statehood can be re-contemplated and refined. The roc/Taiwan’s South China Sea claim thus effectively demonstrates that its re-sovereignisation remains unaccomplished and has produced a stalemate that substantially impacts the roc/Taiwan’s ongoing state-making efforts.

New imagined geographies into old geobodies: problems and prospects for China and Taiwan in the South China Sea

ABSTRACT This article undertakes a two-part exploration of China’s and Taiwan’s attempts this century to re-imagine identity through the creation of new imagined geographies to fit longstanding geobodies. Building on work that examines the South China Sea territorial and maritime rights disputes, it first shows both the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) are using the South China Sea’s location in the geobody to develop new imagined geographies and transform their identities. Beijing seeks to develop a balanced continental–maritime imagined geography to better fit a geobody that includes vast tracts of maritime space, while Taipei is using the same body of water to turn away from the mainland and build a wholly maritime sense of self. The paper then argues that China’s and Taiwan’s new imagined geographies suffer from a unique combination of three characteristics that may undermine their political and rhetorical power. Their South China Sea claims are not based on a sacred homeland, a co-ethnic population or future settlement: taken together, these powerful factors’ absence may make it particularly difficult for the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) to convince their populations – and others – of their new identities.

Sinergitas Kementerian dan Lembaga dalam Mengantisipasi Konflik di Laut China Selatan

The South China Sea is one of the epicenters of conflict in the 21st century. The South China Sea area includes waters and land located in the archipelago of two large islands, namely the Spratlys and Paracels, as well as the banks of the Macclesfield and Scarborough Reef Rivers which stretch from Singapore, from the Malacca Strait to the Taiwan Strait. As this vast territory has often been subjected to successive control by neighboring rulers, several countries, such as the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brunei Darussalam, have engaged in confrontational attempts to claim, over large parts of the entire territory. . While on the one hand Indonesia supports the prospect of peace in the South China Sea for economic development and domestic stability, Indonesian policymakers are concerned about China's interpretation of its South China Sea claims, which also includes reserves of natural gas and other natural resources. inside it. On the other hand, Indonesia is committed to defending the rights of the archipelagic state as stated in UNCLOS .

SOUTH CHINA SEA CLAIM DISPUTE SETTLEMENT BETWEEN ASEAN AND CHINA

The title of this research is "South China Sea Claim Dispute Settlement between ASEAN and China" The purpose of this study is to find out the role of ASEAN in efforts to resolve claims in the South China Sea. This research is a descriptive study - analysis that focuses on secondary data. In this study data collection was carried out using the library research method, namely by reviewing several references relating to the problem in this study, as well as interviews with various sources, which were held verbally and frequently asked by informants to get more in the explanation and information about the matter. matters relating to the problems discussed in this study, data obtained from the literature both orally and in writing. territorial conflicts that occur in the South China Sea are increasingly difficult to resolve because the attitude of the Chinese government is often inconsistent with efforts to resolve conflicts offered by ASEAN. ASEAN countries still have not reached an agreement on the Code of Ethics (COC) because of the different interests of each country. ASEAN is expected to face this conflict dynamics while maintaining peace and transforming potential conflicts into potential cooperation through a number of potential peace talks.

Audience Costs and China’s South China Sea Policy

China’s island building in the South China Sea has received considerable attention from scholars, the media and policy-related officials in recent years. In this article, we conduct a survey to assess the opinions of Chinese university students as it regards their views of any moves by the Chinese government to retreat from its island building and the South China Sea claims due to international pressure. Since China has laid claim to much of the South China Sea via its ‘nine-dash line’, if it were to reverse course and retreat from its man-made islands or remove military installations, how would that play out domestically? Would the Chinese government incur audience costs for doing so? We hypothesise that it would. More specifically, we find it likely that Chinese university students would seek to hold their government accountable for claims to the South China Sea that it has made recently, making it more difficult for the government to retreat from or otherwise adopt a more flexible policy on the South China Sea if it chose to do so. The findings are significant for the audience costs literature, Chinese foreign policy, and South China Sea territoriality studies, in addition to having important policy implications.

The People of K’Gari/Fraser Island: Working through 250 Years of Racial Double Coding

Genealogy is important to Aboriginal societies in Australia because it lets us know who has a right to speak for country. Our genealogy binds us to our traditional country as sovereign nations—clans with distinct languages, ceremony, laws, rights and responsibilities. Since the Native Title Act 1993 was passed by the Keating government, hundreds of Native Title claims have been lodged. The first Native Title claim to be lodged on Badtjala/Butchulla country was in 1996 by my great aunty, Olga Miller, followed by the Butchulla People #2 and the Butchulla People (Land & Sea Claim #2). Consent determination was awarded for K’gari (Fraser Island) in 2014 and for the mainland claim in 2019. As a sovereign nation, we have undergone many decades of deprivational longing—physically separated from our island, but in plain view. This article is written from a Badtjala lens, mapping generations of my Wondunna clan family through the eyes of an artist-academic who has created work since 1986 invested in cultural responsibility. With the accompanying film, Out of the Sea Like Cloud, I recenter the Badtjala history from a personal and local perspective, that incorporates national and international histories.

Mare Nullius or Mare Suum? Using Ethnography to Debate Rights to Marine Resources in Coastal Sámi Communities of Troms

While legal progress on Indigenous land claims has recently been fostered around the globe, sea claims still lag behind. Since the beginning of colonization, the doctrine of mare nullius declared seas vacant of Indigenous tenure or authority and led to the establishment of sovereign State jurisdiction over offshore areas, and more recently to the characterization of the living resources in these waters as accessible for each State’s citizens. In Norway, colonialism was not characterized by transoceanic settlement. The concept of establishing sovereignty in offshore areas attached to the land, however, had the same basis as the European colonies in America or Oceania. In this context, the acknowledgement of the marine living resources in the waters attached to the land as common goods for all Norwegian citizens adversely affected the Coastal Sámi Indigenous peoples, who exclusively and since time immemorial managed the wild marine living resources based on customary systems of marine tenure. Additionally, due to increased regulations over the past few decades, it has become difficult for the Coastal Sámi to continue their traditional way of living. Still, legislation and recommendations on Indigenous participation in marine resource management exist and derive from both Norwegian and international law. However, despite the established legal framework, Coastal Sami participation in marine resource management is often questioned. It has been argued that the most appropriate way to ensure Indigenous inclusion in marine resource management is to look at the reverse side of the coin, exploring Indigenous tenure, legal traditions and knowledge, and accommodate them within State law. This project aims, through ethnographic fieldwork and literature analysis, to discuss the current status of Coastal Sámi fisheries in the communities of Troms County, and illustrate local conceptions of marine resource management among the project participants.

Underwater cultural heritage and the disputed South China Sea

Due to unsolved maritime delimitations, the protection of underwater cultural heritage (hereafter underwater heritage) in the South China Sea demands coordinated action by neighbouring states. However, the suspicion that China uses underwater heritage to justify its interests has tempered the general enthusiasm of its neighbours to cooperate in the issue of heritage protection. In the face of such concerns, this article examines the role of underwater heritage in China’s South China Sea claims, and it argues that underwater heritage provides little support to underpin China’s territorial or maritime claims. In addition, China’s initiatives in maritime archaeology have long been misinterpreted. Instead of being entirely driven by its South China Sea claims, China’s approach to underwater heritage is a natural result of its general policy on cultural heritage and nation-building philosophy.

Philippine-China Relations, Territorial Disputes, and Threats to ASEAN Stability

This commentary deliberates on the role and actions of the Philippine Government over the possible threat to the stability of the Southeast Asian region potentially brought about by long-running territorial disputes between ASEAN member states and China, among others. The ASEAN principle of non-interference is being questioned for being a hindrance to the resolution of these disputes. In addition, ground accounts from citizens of Southeast Asian countries present dissatisfaction over relations of their governments with China, whereby joint ventures and partnerships in development projects with the latter are continuously criticized, with several South Asian and Pacific Island nations had already fallen into the so-called “Chinese debt-trap”. Filipinos have raised the argument for these disputes to be collectively resolved under the United Nations and ASEAN dispute settlement mechanisms as China seems to have neither complied nor respected the decision made by the Permanent Court of Arbitration over the West Philippine Sea claims in July 2016, which favoured the Philippines.

The Increments of Justice: Exploring the Outer Reach of Akiba’s Edge towards Native Title ‘Ownership’

The Torres Strait regional sea claim, culminating in the High Court decision of Akiba v Commonwealth, signalled a new respect for the holistic relationships and dominion that underlay First Peoples’ custodianship of land and waters. The ‘Akiba correction’ centred upon a distinction between ‘underlying rights’ and specific exercises of them – and produced in that case a surviving right to take resources for any purpose (subject to current regulation). The correction emerged from extinguishment disputes, but the significance of this edge towards ‘ownership’ was soon evident in ‘content’ cases on the mainland. Yet there are new challenges coming in the wake of Akiba. What of the many native title determinations that have been settled or adjudicated on pre-Akiba thinking? And what does this renaissance in native title law offer to the communities that will fail (or have failed) the rigorous threshold tests of continuity – also crafted with the older mindset?

Reexamining Taiwan’s South China Sea policy dilemma

While other claimants are directly involved in maritime territorial disputes and dialogues, Taiwan has stalled its momentum and kept its distance from controversy. The government in Taiwan has quietly retreated from the most legitimate and conventional role in the South China Sea in hope of gaining diplomatic support in the region. Many have wondered why Taiwan consistently shies away from the issues. Does the government in Taiwan realize its key role in the South China Sea has been further marginalized as a result? Over the last 2 decades, following democratization, various administrations in Taiwan only managed to imply that Taiwan may have a policy guideline on the South China Sea, but not a firm policy per se. With substantially less political weight in domestic political debates and fierce power struggles in Taipei, Taiwan’s South China Sea claim has unfortunately been left far behind general issues on the policy agenda, especially when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is in power. Due to their relevance to the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan’s complicated relationship with it, the DPP does not want to attach its political efforts to South China Sea issues. This paper intends to review the effectiveness of political measures on South China Sea issues taken by various administrations in Taiwan and examine reasons why indecision has become mainstream in policy thinking on the territorial disputes.

Maritime Archaeology and Underwater Cultural Heritage in the Disputed South China Sea

Abstract:China’s broad geopolitical strategy and positioning for global influence includes its averred legal position in relation to its sovereignty and jurisdiction in the South China Sea. A response to this legal position was the Philippines’ initiation of arbitral proceedings constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Despite the non-participation of China in these proceedings, the arbitral decision of 2016 clarified a number of legal provisions pertinent to the ongoing territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea. This decision impacted directly on China’s assertion of sovereign and jurisdictional historical title or rights, which, in part, relies on evidence obtained from underwater cultural heritage and the associated maritime archaeology. This article critically evaluates China’s maritime archaeology program and its policy with respect to underwater cultural heritage in light of the 2016 arbitral decision and the underlying international law of the sea. While recognizing that China’s policy is not inconsistent with its broader heritage policy, and its national approach to the protection of underwater cultural heritage, this article argues that this cannot be used to support China’s South China Sea claims and is not only misplaced, such as to pose a risk to the archaeological record, but also inconstant with international developments in the form of the 2001 United Nations Convention of the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

China’s South China Sea Claims as “Unprecedented”: Sceptical Remarks

AbstractA solely legalistic analysis of China’s South China Sea claims has given way to speculation regarding their exact nature. Scholars and the tribunal inPhilippines v Chinahave collectively described China’s position as “ambiguous” and “vague.” For others, China’s regulatory framework sets dangerous new precedents in the areas of effective occupation, historic rights, and exclusive economic zones. This article seeks to nuance these assessments. Contextualizing China’s framework within a broader geopolitical project reveals a China exploiting historic legal precedents in a manner reminiscent of imperial America. This should cast doubt on those too quick to see China as a rule-breaking new power eager to upset international norms. Rather, China’s “Caribbean” is a microcosm for a new great power coming into its own following an existing model.

Deciphering West Philippine Sea: A Plutchik and VADER Algorithm Sentiment Analysis

Objectives: Territorial disputes over the West Philippine Sea are an emerging issue in the Philippines and other ASEAN Members with China. The only source of information is coming from the media like the television, online news portals, and social media. In line with this, this study aimed to unveil Netizens emotions and common issues found from the different news articles. Methods/Statistical Analysis: This study scraped the different conversations from Twitter and online news articles published from January 2018 to April 2018 using a Pluchik algorithm for emotions, Valence Awareness Dictionary sEntiment Reasoner (VADER) algorithm for sentiment analysis, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) using Gibbs Sampling – Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) for topic modeling. 2500 times of simulation were performed and validated before developing the hidden themes that are prevalent in the different news articles and supported by Netizens emotions. Findings: Results revealed five (5) underlying themes found in the different news articles such as The assertion of Philippine Sovereignty over Wes Philippine Sea Claim, Philippine-China Co-Ownership and Joint Exploitation of Natural Resources in the Disputed Islands, Intensive Military Presence, Freedom of Navigation, and Military Facilities Buildup in the Disputed Island, China-Philippine Relations through Bilateral Agreement, Trade, Military Support, and Security, and One China Policy through Territorial and Defense Power. Also, Netizens Sentiments showed a majority of them who tweeted were neutral (95%) and only few who were negative (2.67%) and positive (2.33%) where the majority of their emotions through tweets were classified as Joy, Surprise, and Sadness. Only a few tweets were classified as anger, disgust, anticipation, and fear. The findings were unique since it focuses on the soft evidence and the actual opinions, views, and emotions relative to the issues on the disputed islands. Moreover, this result could give insights to the appropriate authorities in dealing with the situations in the West Philippine Sea. Application/Improvements: Further studies maybe conducted by using other social media like Facebook in understanding the emotions and views of the Netizens. Keywords: Asia, Content Analysis, Data Mining, Deciphering, Gibbs Sampling, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, Plutchik Wheel of Emotion, Simulation, Topic Modeling, VADER Sentiment Analysis

Party Politics and National Identity in Taiwan’s South China Sea Claims

How do states determine which geographical areas will be included in their territorial and maritime claims? This article uses an in-depth case study of Taiwan’s South China Sea claim to argue that national identity, as played out through party politics, is a dominant factor shaping Taiwan’s territorial and maritime claims.

Reconsidering China’s South China Sea Claims: Compromising an Operationally Closed System of the Law of the Sea?

The uniqueness of China’s approach in the China–Philippine arbitration is demonstrated in its explication of the dash-line claim. A trend of territorialization in the dash-line claim is discernible since China deems the dash line to be one means for delineating maritime limits and for drawing a maritime boundary, namely maritime delimitation. This position and its connotation not only worry the Philippines but also all stakeholder countries. One explanation is China’s reading of the relations between the law of sea and public international law, which implies that the law of the sea has been established as a unique legal regime and, thus, can be operated in an exclusive manner. This approach, which has also been dubbed ‘the-land-prioritizes-the-sea’ approach runs the risk of isolating the law of the sea regime from the terrain of general international law. The key lies in treating the law of the sea as a regime characterized with conditioned operational closure, so that the spirit of ‘land-dominates-the-sea’ can be meaningfully honoured and implemented.

Replacing the transit passage regime with freedom of navigation in the Strait of Malacca: A case study with special reference to the Korea Strait

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (LOSC) prescribes that ships and aircrafts may exercise the unimpeded right of transit passage when navigating or flying over straits used for international navigation. The Straits of Malacca and Singapore are largely categorised as straits that fall under this category. Consistently described as two of the most critical chokepoints in the world, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore are accommodating increasing navigational traffic each year. This has caused difficulties to the littoral States in balancing heavy shipping activities with the protection of the marine environment of these critical straits. This article hence analyse the legal and political implications should the littoral States of the Strait of Malacca, namely Malaysia and Indonesia retract their 12 nautical miles territorial sea claim in the Strait of Malacca to 3 nautical miles, leaving exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or high seas corridor spanning across the Strait, nullifying the application of transit passage regime. At the moment, Japan and South Korea have decided not to extend their territorial claims over the Korea Strait from 3 nautical miles to 12 nautical miles territorial sea limit. As such, this article conducts a specific case study by looking at the arising circumstances should Malaysia and Indonesia follow the Korea Strait approach. This article concludes on whether or not this proposed measure may a viable method to increase the regulatory powers of the littoral States in regulating shipping through the Strait of Malacca.

Case Study: The Myanmar and Bangladesh Maritime Boundary Dispute in the Bay of Bengal and Its Implications for South China Sea Claims

This paper seeks to review the pertinent Myanmar and Bangladesh history in overlapping maritime territorial claims leading up to the September 2011 International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) case: Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary Between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal. It will dissect the legal proceedings as primary source documents and apply the relevant judgement findings to analyse the implications for the respective countries and for South China Sea maritime boundary disputes. While the judgements of this case set certain legal precedents that may be more easily applied to bilateral disputes, the implications, nevertheless, impinge on multilateral claims as well. To the extent that the Bangladesh-Myanmar ITLOS judgement provides a pathway to third-party, independent, and peaceful resolution to the potentially explosive and escalating tensions in the South China Sea, this paper argues that findings are relevant, but limited.

Reassessing China: Awaiting Xi Jinping

Reassessing China: Awaiting Xi Jinping

A plea for ‘genealogical thinking’ in comparative biology - a rebuttal to the reply of Szucsich, Wirkner, and Pass to my article ‘Deconstructing Morphology’

Scholtz G. in press. A plea for ‘genealogical thinking’ in comparative biology – a rebuttal to the reply of Szucsich, Wirkner, and Pass to my article ‘Deconstructing Morphology’. —Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 00: 1–4. Szucsich et al. (in press) claim that – in contrast to my statement – morphological thinking has to be ‘cladistic.’ Based on this premise, they stress the difference between the relationships among states of characters versus those among structures assigned to the same character state as implemented in numerical cladistic reasoning. SEA claim that my approach to the homology concept only deals with the problem of the integration of various character states into the same character, whereas the necessary relationships among structures assigned to the same state are not covered. Based on this distinction, SEA also criticise the application of similarity in my definition of homology. Furthermore, they address the issue of evolutionarily independent units.