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Sheng Dingli
US’ willingness to breach international laws and norms has emboldened Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines to do likewise.
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China six-and-a-half decades ago, China has championed the United Nations Charter, as this Charter, in advocating peace, non-aggression and development, has been the source of all international laws in the post-colonial age. As a former victim of imperialism and colonialism, China and all other formerly suppressed countries should enjoy the protection of the UN in a fairer world. And by sticking to the model of UN-based collective security and widest possible multilateralism, the former colonisers are also better off through treating small and weak countries on an equal footing.
But although China advocates advancing national interests and international relations with international norms and laws as a priority, a number of its own legitimate sovereign interests have not yet been properly respected. In fact, among all major countries, China is still the only one whose fundamental national interests in sovereignty and territorial integrity have not been fully attained. For instance, the Chinese mainland has not yet reunified with Taiwan, not has China fully retained the Diaoyu Islands, despite the fact that imperialist Japan, which invaded China and stole these islands around 1894-1895, was defeated in World War II. Additionally, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other neighbours have occupied some of the Chinese islands and islets in the South China Sea since the 1970s, which they have recognized, both explicitly and implicitly, on numerous occasions as belonging to China. Frankly speaking, external factors, especially the involvement of the United States in the region, have complicated the situation even more.
This indicates that modern international norms and laws, such as the principle of non-aggression, have not been fully respected and implemented in reality. Because of the Cold War, the US intervened in the Taiwan issue, deploying armed forces and nuclear weapons on Taiwan before 1979, thus seriously violating the UN Charter. Though Washington has normalised relations with Beijing since 1979, it has continued to sell arms to Taiwan, as well as making and placing its domestic law, the Taiwan Relations Act, above international law.
And by “reverting” the Diaoyu Islands to Japan in 1972, the US has disregarded the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation to which it was party. In addition, President Obama claimed in his April 2014 Japan tour that the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960 is applicable to this issue. With the US breaching international norms and laws, Japan has become more emboldened in challenging China’s sovereign interests. Similarly, Vietnam and the Philippines have ventured to provoke Chinese sovereign interests in the South China Sea, by taking advantage of Obama’s “rebalancing” strategy.
Even while the US has been flagrantly disregarding international norms and laws in dealing with China’s sovereignty, Washington has sought to position itself as a defender of international law. By asking China to withdraw its East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) and to withdraw from engaging in economic activity within the overlapping waters between the Nine Dash Line and the maritime exclusive economic zones of China’s neighbours, the US seeks to accord respect to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
And the US argues for the right of freedom of navigation and flight in international waters and airspace, as if China has violated such international norms. At this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, the US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, said China was “destabilising” the East and South China seas by not respecting proper international laws.
While an ADIZ may not be based on international law, it is the US that started the practice with the launch of its first ADIZ as early as 1950. The US has to withdraw its own ADIZs before it can tell China to do so. China’s East China Sea ADIZ covers the airspace above the Diaoyu Islands, and this was a logical move as the ADIZ was partly a response to Japan’s “nationalisation” of the islands in 2012 and subsequent US threat that it would “defend” Japan’s illegal control of them through US-Japan bilateral arrangement rather than international law.
China respects the EEZ rights to which others are entitled, but in joining UNCLOS in 1982, China made proper reservations due to its historical rights in the region. Any country has a right not to accept a certain part of an international treaty, or not to accede to it at all, and China has made its position clear from the beginning. China has not violated those parts of UNCLOS that it has not accepted. So why is the US, which has not ratified this convention, entitled to tell China to observe the UNCLOS, to which China has already expressed its reservations?
UNCLOS is meant to delineate maritime economic interests among nations, not to judge sovereign disputes at sea. It is the UN system, rather than UNCLOS, which should tackle those fundamental sovereign issues, such as US sales of weapons to Taiwan, American “preemption” of Iraq, as well as the aggression of Hanoi and Manila in the South China Sea. Notably, the US is completely silent on these matters. Washington has pointed accusing fingers at Russia for Moscow’s military actions in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, but it ignores its own aggressive actions regarding Taiwan and Iraq.
America’s hypocrisy over international norms and laws, though hurting Chinese, Iraqis and many others, will certainly and eventually undercut its self-professed legitimate and fair global leadership. It is high time Washington reflected on this.
The author is a professor and vice-dean at the Institute of International Affairs, Fudan University. He is also the founder and director of China’s first non-government program on arms control and regional security at Fudan University. www.chinausfocus.com <http://www.chinausfocus.com>
This opinion appeared originally in China Daily.
derick.khumalo