12 - The U.S. Position in the South China Sea

Summary

The South China Sea is clearly of concern to many countries and parties apart from China and the Southeast Asian states that have rival claims there. In terms of larger questions of peace, regional stability and global commerce, those with deep and legitimate interests heavily outnumber claimants. Indeed, it can be safely asserted that the entire international community — multinational corporations, private traders and energy companies, as well as governments of all political persuasions — has a huge stake in the maintenance of the South China Sea as a peaceful and open waterway.

The multiple sea-lines of communications traversing the South China Sea, which carry significant amounts of international maritime trade, are of crucial importance to the countries within the broader region and beyond. Economic powerhouses China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan all depend on uninterrupted energy supplies, largely in the form of oil, natural gas and coal from the Middle East, Australia and Africa, much of which flows through the South China Sea.

This chapter examines American interests in the South China Sea. Although other non-claimant countries could be expected to offer comments, engage in diplomacy and make representations in the event of looming instability in the South China Sea, only the United States possesses the power to intervene decisively. Other parties might not agree with specific American actions in the event of intervention, but the United States broadly would represent their desire for an outcome that preserves peace and permits freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea.

Summary

The United States has maintained a consistent policy on the South China Sea, even as the attention it gives the area has been, at best, intermittent. America is not only a non-claimant and does not back anyone else's claims in the South China Sea, but it adopts no position whatsoever on the legal merits of the six sets of overlapping and competing sovereignty claims. As the world's pre-eminent power, the United States is overwhelmingly concerned with freedom of navigation, ensuring no disruption to the flow of maritime trade that is vital to its own prosperity and that of its friends and allies in Northeast and Southeast Asia. At the strategic level, the U.S. Navy depends on unimpeded passage through South China Sea transit corridors to deploy vessels rapidly between the Western Pacific and Indian oceans, greatly facilitating America's global military posture.