Island territorial disputes and China’s ‘Shelving Disputes and Pursuing Joint Development’ policy

‘Shelving Disputes and Pursuing Joint Development’ (SDPJD) has for decades been China’s premier policy for resolving territorial disputes, especially those regarding islands. SDPJD is, however, commonly understood to be tripartite policy, in which ‘shelving disputes’ and ‘pursuing joint development’ are made conditional upon the principle of ‘sovereignty belongs to China’. Although SDPJD aims to peacefully settle China’s island territorial disputes in the East China Sea (Diaoyu Islands) and the South China Sea (Spratly Islands), the policy has not been particularly successful in practice. This is in part because, whereas ‘shelving disputes’ and ‘pursuing joint development’ are cooperative in nature, ‘sovereignty belongs to China’ is inherently confrontational. The prominence granted to ‘sovereignty belongs to China’ is linked to outmoded understanding of the concept of sovereignty and the tendency for Chinese scholars and officials to regard island territorial disputes as the zero-sum games. This paper argues that SDPJD’s success is dependent upon separating ‘sovereignty belongs to China’ from ‘shelving disputes’ and ‘pursuing joint development’ and perhaps abandoning the former principle entirely. China should pursue non-confrontation resolution to island territorial pursuits, especially in the contexts of efforts to develop a peaceful and cooperative 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road.