scholarly journals The South China Sea Dispute: A Reflection of Southeast Asia’s Economic and Strategic Dilemmas (2009-2018)

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Florencia Rubiolo
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South China ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Asymmetric Distribution ◽  
The South ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Distribution Of Power

The asymmetric distribution of power in the Asian maritime region is favoring China, increasing theapprehension of its neighbors that, faced with their evident vulnerability, fear about Beijing’s intentions. In this context, the balance of power maintains the status quo and limits China’s behavior against other coastal countries. Given the disparity of military and economic power between Southeast Asia and China, this balance can only be achieved with the intervention of an extra-regional power, the United States. The renewed American participation as a guarantor of regional security has created new bonds of strategic dependence for Southeast Asia, which in turn have economies that mainly rely on China. The South China Sea conflict is then posing two dilemmas for the region: China’s increasing economic leverage and Washington’s reactive and challenging Indo-Pacific policy, which might make a stalemate in the maritime conflict possible.

scholarly journals O Great Game no Sudeste Asiático: a China, a ASEAN e o Mar do Sul da China

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
Nuno Mendes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South China ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
The South ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Great Game

Besides being promoting globalization with Chinese characteristics, with the Belt and Road Initiative as an epitome, Xi Jinping’s contemporary China has tried to dominate its regional insertion area and namely Southeast Asia, which is economically and politically organized in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Both China and ASEAN have convergent economic and strategic interests in the South China Sea, whose wealth in energetic resources and fisheries is at the origin of a sovereignty dispute. In addition to this, around one-third of world trade passes through this sea. In this confluence of sea-lanes, naval powers are being measured and it is a scenario for the competitive coexistence China- United States of America, whose influence in Southeast Asia dates from Cold War, where the United States navy capabilities are being tested. In these circumstances – which can be described as a new Great Game –, not only ASEAN does not solve its problems in the South China Sea but also will be positioned in between Chinese and North- American pressures.

China and the United States in Southeast Asia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu Shulong
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South China ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Security Interest

Southeast Asia has strong ties with China in the areas of economics, diplomacy, and culture. China also has a security interest in the South China Sea, which has become a major source of conflict between China and the United States, due to American fears that China’s military buildup in the South China Sea may threaten American “freedom of navigation” in the sea and the entire Western Pacific. China’s main interest in Southeast Asia is defending its sovereignty and security in the South China Sea.

scholarly journals Military Competition between the United States and China in the South China Sea: A Critical Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky C. Cardenas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
The South ◽  
China Sea

This article will examine the impact of military competition between the United States and China in the South China Sea on the regional security of Southeast Asia. Specifically, it will focus on the many implications of China’s continuous militarization of the South China Sea, including its construction of military installations on artificial islands and reefs and its overlapping claims in the region. China has become particularly aggressive in its militarization of the Spratly Islands as well as its claims in disputed waters where the Philippines has rights under its exclusive economic zone. This article will present some of the paths by China and the United States toward military conflict and analyze the competition that exists between these two nations today. It will be argued that U.S. and European approaches toward China should foster long-term strategic efforts in engaging Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to help maintain regional security in the South China Sea and break through the facade of transactional approaches. This article will also point out that the United States and China are constrained in their attempts to engage in military cooperation, limited by their own national interests as well as competition in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States views China as challenging its long-standing great-power military dominance in the region, while China sees the United States as an obstacle against its own rise to power as it strengthens its national security through its militarization of the South China Sea.

Goldilocks and the South China Sea: Why Vietnam is Hedging Against a Rising China

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW KENNETH REYNOLDS
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
The South ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Economic Ties ◽  
The Relationship

When Richard Samuels raised the prospect of a ‘Goldilocks Consensus’ in regardsto Japan’s relationship vis à vis China, he was positing the idea that Japan shouldhedge. Samuels identified a need for Japan to grow stronger whilst avoiding growingsufficiently powerful as to pose a threat to China, while simultaneously positioningitself not too close and not too far from the United States, its security guarantor. Inshort, Japan should aim to get the relationship ‘just right’, hence the faerie—taleanalogy. Moving further south within Asia, an examination of the evolvingrelationship between Vietnam and China shows this is precisely the strategy Vietnamis adopting vis à vis China, albeit within an entirely different security dynamic. Inessence, Vietnam's hedging strategy, comprising what Goh has defined as a form of“triangular politics” between Vietnam, China and the United States, is a strategypredicated on working for the best whilst preparing for the worst. It is a strategythat seeks to combine a mixture of balancing, containment, engagement andenmeshment as a form of insurance against an uncertain strategic future.This paper will argue that, due to Thayer’s “tyranny of geography’ – whereVietnam's shared northern continental border and their long snaking eastern littoralcoastline bordering the South China Sea have inevitably thrown Vietnam's andChina's interests together – Vietnam is more threatened by China's rise than anyother regional state. As Goh states, “the tyranny of geography renders the twocountries strategic rivals.” Consequently, as China continues to rise, this paperargues that Vietnam will increasingly seek to hedge with the United States,increasing military and security ties with the western hegemon as part of a nuancedstrategy, which also includes engagement with China (particularly through growingtrade and economic ties); which seeks to enmesh China in multilateral institutionswithin the regional security architecture; and which seeks to strengthen its ownsecurity position through a program of military modernisation and selective militaryexpansion. This nuanced strategy we shall call hedging.

The Hegemony’s Contest in the South China Sea

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110312
Author(s):  
Victor Alexandre G. Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Sudden Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South China Sea ◽  
Power Transition ◽  
The South ◽  
Economic Dynamic ◽  
China Sea

Constantly analyzed in scientific, theoretical, and empirical studies, the “ Asian Mediterranean” region has received renewed attention as a consequence of the rise of China. China’s emergence combines its strong economic dynamic with increased confidence, positioning it as a potential regional hegemony. On that conceptual basis, this study aims to answer whether a power transition has already occurred in the South China Sea and how the process of a regional hegemonic transition took place. Through an examination of the instruments used by the United States and China to exercise power, articulated with the power transition theory, it establishes that a transition in the South China Sea dispute could have already occurred. However, the study disclaims that Beijing’s evolution and sudden change of behavior aim to overthrow the U.S. global leadership but rather intends to reclaim its position of regional hegemony.

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