25 - China and the Settlement of Territorial Disputes

Summary

Extensive land borders and complex historical issues have brought a series of territorial disputes to the People’s Republic of China since its foundation in 1949. Over the past decades, China has settled land-boundary issues with twelve of its fourteen land neighbours, covering more than 90 per cent of the entire length. Nevertheless, territorial disputes between China and India remain a serious challenge, and China must consider how to mitigate and resolve the island issue with some Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and the Philippines, in the South China Sea and the dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. China’s approach to settling territorial disputes is characterized by its preference for bilateral negotiations and its argument based on the ‘customary line’. The vision of creating a harmonious regional/international environment to achieve the policy goal of ‘peaceful rise’ is likely to prompt China to continue and increase its use of international law to settle its disputed border issues, which is also in line with its high priority goal of maintaining domestic stability.