While Vietnam is in the early stages of developing its energy trading market, the country could stand to gain a lot from claiming more reserves from the South China Sea than it currently has access to. One year in, the war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending. Beijing claims the Spratly Islands to be its 'indisputable sovereign territory'; something unsurprisingly disputed by the surrounding countries Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan. In its annual defence review, Japan said China's naval activities were a matter of grave concern, accusing Beijing of trying to alter the status quo in the East and South China Seas. It has an emerging renewable energy market as few fossil fuel resources are available, but backup resources of natural gas could also be of economic interest. What's behind the South China Sea dispute? Despite the formidable obstacles presented by the heated atmosphere in the South China Sea, there are practical options to enable development of oil and gas resources. ..Find out more, Innovating Out of the Climate Crisis: Carbon Emissions, As the private sector, federal regulators, and climate activists alike search for more tools to keep carbon out of the atmosphere, active carbon management approaches like carbon capture, utilization, and storage once seen as too costly, too risky, or both are gaining renewed attention. As China has grown more powerful economically and militarily, it has looked to assert its dominance in everything from trade to international institutions like the United Nations. More than half of the worlds top ten shipping ports are also located in and around the South China Sea, according to the International Association of Ports and Harbors. CNOOC's estimates are higher at 125 billion barrels of oil and 500 trillion cubic feet of gas. Of the three major nearshore habitat types, i.e., coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses, 45 mangrove species out of a global of 51, most of the currently recognised 70 coral genera and 20 of 50 known seagrass species have been recorded from the South China Sea. Here Are Six Charts. January 3, 2023 by Olivia Angelino, Thomas J. Bollyky, Elle Ruggiero and Isabella Turilli CNOOC has the most experience with offshore oil production and has invested the most into the sea. This was only the most recent incident highlighting . by Lindsay Maizland The sea is also a shipping route and has major fishing grounds. Indeed, depleting supplies have led to clashes in the past, and annual Chinese fishing bans under the auspices of environmental protection are seen as simply another way of claiming sovereignty. China claims the largest portion of territory, saying its rights go back centuries. On maps, China depicts its claims with a "nine-dash line" (see Figure All the countries bordering directly on this sea - China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei - have claimed some or all of the tiny, but strategically located, Spratly Islets and some or all of the maritime space and its resources. From an environmental perspective, methane is also a potent greenhouse gas, 30 times more damaging in terms of climate change than CO2. -8248-1881-4. Read about our approach to external linking. The South China Sea is one of the most important economic and environmental regions in the world. While a range of academics, policy-experts, NGOs, and government agencies from around the world have offered an enormous amount of commentary on this issue, most have focused on the territorial and political disputes in the region without fully discussing what the conflict truly centers on: a concentration of energy resources. What might happen next in the South China Sea? The immediate source of conflict in the region is competition over resources, saysDavid Rosenberg, professor of political science at Middlebury College. The fish resources of the South China Sea are a global common. David Rosenbergs article [PDF] for the Harvard Asia Quarterly delves into what's at risk in the South China Sea, including the region's resources profiles, shipping lanes and fisheries. About 6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of liquefied natural gas, or more than half of global LNG trade, passed through the South China Sea in 2011. Nationalism has also fueled many of these stalemates. Experts say the potential for an escalated conflict in the South China Seawhile seemingly distant for nowpresents an ongoing crisis for the region, as well as for U.S. interests in the area. By Zachary Haver. The South China Sea first becomes a factor in Chinese policy when a cartographer working for the Republic of China (ROC) government created a map with a broken line encompassing almost the entire South China Sea. disputes over fishing rights have emerged as a larger driver of conflict. But the South China Sea has been dangerously overfished. Quoted from the Asia Maritime Transparency Maritime Initiative, the US Energy Information Agency has estimated that the South China Sea . Disputes have hindered the local offshore oil industry and deterred investors, and are now set to increase diplomatic tensions between China and the US. Many fishermen are forced to resort to more efficient and aggressive techniques . All of 1982 More than 160 nations conclude the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, an international treaty setting out the framework governing the oceans and their uses. Contributing to this abundance are the extensive runoff of nutrient-laden waters from land and the upwellings of water in certain areas of the sea. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest China's claim to almost all of the South China Sea. Updates? Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It was a fruitless exercise as neither side was able to extract any oil in the process. An important new book shows that China's aggressive behavior in the South China Sea is not only creating regional tensions but also destroying the ecosystem upon which hundreds of millions of people rely. Beijing warned that it would firmly oppose any breach of sovereignty by the US Navy and that it would be a "grave mistake for the United States to use military means to challenge China". You are also agreeing to our. by Although largely uninhabited, two island chains in the area may have reserves of natural resources around them. The sea is heavily fished, however, and is the main source of animal protein for the densely populated Southeast Asian area. Three years ago an arbitration tribunal issued a decision finding that Chinas maritime claims in the South China Sea are inconsistent with the Law of the Sea Convention. As with oil, estimates of the regions natural gas resources vary widely. February 1, 2023 February 8, 2023, Backgrounder ChinaPower found that an estimated $3.4 trillion in trade passed through the South China Sea in 2016. Today we are strengthening U.S. policy in a vital, contentious part of that region the South China Sea. One Chinese estimate for the entire SCS estimates natural gas reserves to be 2 quadrillion cubic feet. The South China Sea is a strategic marine area in terms of natural resource potential and international trade routes. 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The region also is the subject of more than a dozen overlapping and interconnected disputes over who is in charge of the various islands, rocks, shoals and reefs scattered throughout the South China Sea waters. 2023 The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and The Center for Strategic and International Studies |, Promoting openness and exchange in maritime Asia. These zones come into play during disputes over sea territory, as displayed in Chinas December 2012 spat with Vietnam over oil and fishing activity in the waters near the Paracel Islands. The South China Sea disputes continue to confuse and confound policymakers. What Happens When Foreign Investment Becomes a Security Risk? China's . As early as the 1970s, countries began to claim islands and various zones in the South China Sea, such as the Spratly Islands, which possess rich natural resources and fishing areas. . Houston-based oil and gas company Harvest Natural Resources Inc (HNR) was given rights to drill in the sea by China in 1998, in the same location that Talisman of Canada had been separately granted rights by Vietnam. China, too, considers control of these waters to be of high strategic importance. Beijings issuance of a new passport in late 2012 containing a map of the disputed region based on the line drew fresh international criticism and backlash. Due to China's expansion of power in the South China Sea, relations with neighboring countries in the South China Sea have become increasingly tense; Philippine officials recently revealed that the US military may return to Subic Bay. Four years after an international tribunal in The Hague ruled that China's claims in the region had no legal basis, the US has for the first time officially made its stance clear. The International Crisis Group provides an in-depth report on the South China Sea and its regional responses, examining what the conflicts mean for each country involved, and what risks and factors are at play for all. Backgrounder Arguments over who owns what in the South China Sea region have been going on for centuries. As a result, upwelling areas having colder surface temperatures and higher nutrient content are found off central Vietnam. He condemned Beijing's "campaign of bullying to control" disputed waters that are potentially energy-rich. REUTERS/Erik De Castro Reuters. The sea has in recent years become a flashpoint for tensions between China and other nations which claim sovereignty over two largely uninhabited island chains, the Paracels and the Spratlys. South China Sea - An Overview. 600 4th Street South Tensions are so high the maritime territory is "at risk of becoming Asia's Palestine" according to Surin Pitsuwan, the outgoing Secretary-General of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). by Anshu Siripurapu and Noah Berman It is unknown why they are so different, but it could be so that China . The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean.It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luzon, Mindoro and Palawan), and in the south by Borneo, eastern Sumatra and the Bangka Belitung Islands, encompassing an area of around . Secure .gov websites use HTTPS We are making clear: Beijing's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them. According to some estimates however, 40% of the stocks are collapsed or overexploited and 70% of the coral reefs are heavily depleted. The Chinese side is firmly opposed to it.". The need for resources, especially hydrocarbons and fisheries, also has intensified economic competition in the region, particularly given the rapid coastal urbanization of China. In the most recent clash, the Philippines naval forces intercepted eight Chinese fishing vessels in the Scarborough Shoal in April 2012, finding what they viewed as illegally fished marine life on board. China was the first country to discover, name, explore and exploit the resources of the South China Sea Islands and the first to continuously exercise sovereign powers over them," the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in December 2014. The Sovereignty Disputes China asserts "indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters" without defining the scope of its "adjacent waters" claim. Conflicts have in recent decades arisen over them because of perceived national rights. For example, the Spratly Islands are claimed in entirety by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Brunei, the Philippines and Malaysia; each except Brunei occupies some of the islands. However, Yann-Huei says China is unlikely to instigate an interruption in traffic because its business, exploration, and importation rely entirely on freedom of navigation as well. It has also been more assertive in putting forward its claims in the South China Sea. Mr Pompeo's comments come amid worsening relations between China and a number of other countries. Summer typhoons are frequent. Activities in the South China Sea An estimated $3.37 trillion worth, or 21% of all global trade, transited through the South China Sea in 2016, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It said America "exaggerates the situation in the region and attempts to sow discord between China and other littoral countries. Oil and gas news, data and in-depth articles on offshore projects, exploration and decommissioning and the trends driving technology and innovation, "South China Sea is one of the most important oil and gas producing areas due to its huge resource potential. There is a belief that the South China Sea may have extensive oil and natural gas resources, although reliable data has yet to be published ( BBC, 2015 ). The islands are mostly uninhabited and have never had an indigenous population, making the issue of historical sovereignty a thorny one to resolve. But why now? The deep portion, called the China Sea Basin, has a maximum depth of 16,457 feet (5,016 metres) and an abyssal plain with a mean depth of . The United States supports the Philippines in calling on the PRC to end its provocative actions and to respect international law in the South China Sea. 2013 The Philippines challenges Chinas claims of historic rights and other actions in an arbitration case under the Law of the Sea Convention. February 2, 2023. "Any [People's Republic of China] action to harass other states' fishing or hydrocarbon development in these waters - or to carry out such activities unilaterally - is unlawful," he said. The worst but least likely scenario is war. However, the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) states that constructed islands do not have the same rights as natural islands, and thus China has no claim on the surrounding waters. The island groups of the South China Sea are all disputed and sovereignty is claimed over them by a number of countries. South China Sea is an arm of western Pacific Ocean in Southeast Asia. All the countries bordering directly on this seaChina, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Bruneihave claimed some or all of the tiny, but strategically located, Spratly Islets and some or all of the maritime space and its resources. All of these claims have serious weaknesses under the principles of . For decades, territorial disputes have occurred with peaceful solutions from . One of the largest impasses to a resolution is Chinas insistence on conducting most of its diplomacy on a bilateral basis, wrote CFRs Stewart Patrick. by Noah Berman, Lindsay Maizland and Andrew Chatzky Backgrounder ASEAN countries have contested this boundary, but China has insisted on the historical legitimacy of the line based on survey expeditions, fishing activities, and naval patrols dating as far back as the fifteenth century, putting it at odds with the boundaries UNCLOS has enforced for the region since 1994. 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