Against the backdrop of US State Secretary Hillary Clinton’s statement in Hanoi last July that it is in the “national interest” of the United States that freedom of navigation be maintained in the South China Sea, diplomatic observers were anticipating a strongly worded reference on that issue in the joint statement that would be released after the 2nd ASEAN-US held at the Waldorf Hotel in New York last Saturday.
The official statement simply said: “We re-affirmed the importance of regional peace and stability, maritime security, unimpeded commerce, and freedom of navigation, in accordance with relevant universally agreed principles of international law, including the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other international maritime law, and the peaceful settlement of disputes.”
There was no mention of South China Sea!
What happened? We saw two drafts of the statement and they both revolved around the South China Sea which China announced last March as part of its “core sovereignty interest” at par with Tibet and Taiwan. That means China will not hesitate to use force to protect that “core sovereignty interest.”
Perhaps alarmed by China’s declaration about the South China which it claims wholly, Vietnam, chairman of this year’s ASEAN meeting and one of those that claim parts of the area, put in the agenda in the South China Sea in the last Asian Regional Forum last July.
The ARF is composed of 10 ASEAN countries – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia. Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam – and their 17 dialogue partners namely, Australia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan, Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste,and the United States.
It was at the ARF where Clinton said that “The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea.”
She also said that the United States supports “a collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants for resolving the various territorial disputes without coercion.”
Diplomatic observers see it as a new direction for U.S. foreign policy, a deviation from what was pursued by the Bush administration that largely ignored Asia.
Clinton’s remark, as expected drew sharp response from China. China’s Foreign Ministry posted a statement on its web site saying that Clinton’s statements are “virtually an attack on China” and that there is “no problem” with the freedom of navigation and security in the region.
The drafting of the statement that ASEAN leaders including President Aquino and US President Barack Obama showed the dynamics between Asean and the U.S., complete with its cultural sensitivities and political pragmatism.
An early draft we saw looked like a U.S. initiative. It said, “We re-affirmed the importance of freedom of navigation, regional stability, respect for international law and unimpeded commerce under lawful conditions in the South China Sea.
“ASEAN and the United States share these interests with other maritime nations, including the SCS claimants and the broader international community. The U.S. expressed support for the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and encouraged the parties to reach agreement on a full code of conduct. Further, ASEAN and the United States oppose the use or threat of force by any claimant attempting to enforce disputed claims in the South China Sea.”
ASEAN submitted an alternative: ““We re-affirmed the importance of regional peace and stability, maritime security, unimpeded commerce, and freedom of navigation, in accordance with relevant universally agreed principles of international law, and the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea.”
In the end, South China Sea was deleted. A source privy to the drafting of the statement said it was the consensus of all parties that, “It’s best that we don’t specify South China Sea.”
A week before the 2nd ASEAN-US summit, two ranking American officials, Kurt Campbell, assistant State secretary, and Jeffrey Bader,national Security Council Senior Director for Asia, met with the ambassadors of Southeast Asian countries to discuss the topics that the Leaders would tackle. “Maintenance of regional stability” was in the list.
Bader, a diplomatic source said, told the ASEAN ambassadors that the U.S. wants to strike “the exquisite balance” on the issues involving maritime security to ensure that they will not create a new venue for US-China tensions.
He added they will remain supportive of regional efforts maintaining peace in the area without having to create new mechanism to discuss the issue.
ASEAN is treading the delicate balance of maintaining close relations with the two superpowers. Political analyst Benito Lim said ASEAN is now faced with a U.S reasserting its paramount leadership in Asia Pacific which was neglected by the Bush administration when it went to war in Iraq in 2003.
“Now Obama and Clinton are-reasserting the role of the U.S. in Asia. They are saying we are back. But when they did so, they found out that many Asians, despite doubts on the secret motive of China, have accepted China’s role as an economic leader and decided to engage China economically. So now, the U.S. has to do soft power charm offensive.”
Lim said ASEAN is in a dilemma: “They appreciate and need military cooperation with the U.S. They want and need the military umbrella that such cooperation provides but they also need economic cooperation with China. They do not want to make a choice. They want cooperation and development. They want a win-win situation.”
That is best expressed in the official ASEAN-US statement.
Storm clouds gathering:
South China Sea, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang…China ”core” interests.
World Order may become World Disorder. Let’s hope it won’t be in the near future…
Aquino promoting ties of dependency with U.S.?
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/insights/08/15/10/aquino-promoting-ties-dependency-us
Every Pinoy in Pinas believe that Pinas is normal in cowering before Mainland China military strength. Pilipinas should think like Vietnam. Three times, there were wars between China and Vietnam. The last one was in 1979 and which Vietnam triggered when Vietnam invaded Cambodia to end the reign of mainland-China backed Khmer Rouge. The PRC launched the its offensive into Vietnam — scorched earth policy. After a brief incursion into Northern Vietnam, PRC troops withdrew about a month later. Both China and Vietnam claimed victory in the last of the Indochina Wars of the twentieth century; however, since Vietnamese troops remained in Cambodia until 1989 it can be said that the PRC failed to achieve the goal of dissuading Vietnam from involvement in Cambodia.
Strong against foreign invasions is a country when its citizens are willing to die for the native land.
Vietnam along with Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore benefit from USA naval and airforce presence in the South China sea as a counterweight to China saber-rattling. Vietnam also want more English-language teachers to accelerate the preparation of Vietnam youth into the workforce of the future.
when other countries stengthened ties with the us, we had countrymen mouthing communist inspired doctrines, equating the relationship with the superpower as “dependency” or being “tuta” or something…most probably working as operators for the “other” superpower, or maybe unwitting parrots, some people believe that being contrary to authority makes them intelligent…shame on them…
pepito,
this “cowering” does not apply to every pinoy…only the noisy ones…i don’t know where these leftist militants will be when we actually see the chinese flag being held by marching troops in the streets, will they still be able to have rallies, demonstrations, effigy burning, etc? probably not, but maybe they’ll be occupying high government positions as a reward for a job well done? 🙂
our strength lies in our capability to rally as one united front…sadly, this is very difficult with filipinos nowadays, as some choose to rally behind the money… 🙁
I still look at China as a bully, especially now that it has gained so much economic and military power. Its sovereign claim over the south china seas is really ridiculous but China will go to war for this claim. If China can claim and annex its neighboring countries, it will do so as it has done with Tibet. The more China grows strong the more it will bully its Asian neighbors. The irony is we are a contributor to making China strong and grow stronger. I for one has stopped patronizing anything made in China. Unfortunately some of the things I have bought contain China made components. That is how entrenched China products have become. One means how to resist China’s bullying is for RP to become economically strong, build our defense structure and strengthen our ties with our Asian neighbors. Yet this are just wishful think as of now.
oyster,
same here…just got bullied by mainland chinese colleagues – internal auditors…scary bunch of people…talked like there’s no corruption in there… 🙁
“The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” J. Edgar Hoover
Jugg,
In recent news, China says it wont pursue or seek hegemony and would not harm any nation or individual even as it becomes more powerful. It is hard to believe since it claims the whole of the south china seas. And anyone that opposes that claim is threatened by China. We, RP has stake a claim in the Spratlys or Kalayaan Group of Islands. But China has already and is continually setting up structures on occupied and other islets. The Asean-US statement means nothing so far to China in light of this just recent statement of China.
the last time there was the “dispute” over the free maritime activities in most of the Pacific, Japan decided that they can not take the chances of compromising their National Interest, and history showed that conflict showed how man can be so cruel to his fellow man…nobody wants to repeat that episode in the history of man, because it might be the end of man as we know it.
We have to look at US renewed interest in the South China Sea in the context of activities being undertaken in other fronts like this:
I get the feeling that those noise were aimed at getting something. Take a look at this:
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/24/has_china_realized_it_overplayed_its_foreign_policy_hand