Abstract
The South China Sea contestation presents a perfect case illustrating how complex and difficult the situation can be once territorial claims are entangled with energy security issues. It is commonly understood that energy security is a core component of the national interest of any independent country. Ensuring sufficient energy provision to support economic and social activities is a core responsibility of any government. To those world powers, their governments’ responsibilities may go well beyond the energy security concerns of their own by aiming to develop a global energy security system for the benefit of themselves and their allies. The USA is taking a leading role in the initiative of shaping a new world order of energy security. However, such a system may not be in the immediate or long term interests of China. Furthermore, China is worried about being victimized by this system or in the process. Therefore, China strives to have a voice in searching for a global energy security regime. The South China Sea has thus become a proving ground in this contest.
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Notes
- 1.
Namely China, India, Japan and South Korea.
- 2.
Amy Myers Jaffe and Kenneth B Medlock, “China, India and Asian Energy” in Jan H Kalicki and David L Goldwyn (eds.), Energy and Security: Strategies for A World in Transition (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC, 2013), p. 284.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Ibid, at 299.
- 5.
US Energy Information Administration, Contested Areas of South China Sea Likely Have Few Conventional Oil and Gas Resources (April 3, 2013), available at https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=10651.
- 6.
See Lin Shu-yuan and Jamie Wang, “U.S. report details rich resources in South China Sea”, Focus Taiwan News Channel (February 9, 2013), https://web.archive.org/web/20130213111846/http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?ID=201302090013&Type=aIPL.
- 7.
The other three are the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.
- 8.
Mikkal E. Herberg, “Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia” in Jan H. Kalicki and David L. Goldwyn (eds.), Energy and Security: Strategies for a World in Transition (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC, 2013), p. 304.
- 9.
Michael T. Klare, “Twenty-First Century Energy Wars: How Oil and Gas Are Fueling Global Conflicts”, Energy Post (July 15, 2014), http://energypost.eu/twenty-first-century-energy-wars-oil-gas-fuelling-global-conflicts/.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
US Energy Information Administration, “The South China Sea is an important world energy trade route” (April 3, 2013), available at https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=10671.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
The intraregional crude oil trade is mainly carried out between Malaysian, Indonesian, and Australian as crude oil exporters and Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and China as importers, with smaller amounts going to other Southeast Asia countries.
- 14.
Neal Kimberley, “South China Sea Headbutting of Nations Is about Energy Security ”, South China Morning Post (Opinion, May 20, 2016), https://www.scmp.com/business/article/1933745/south-china-sea-headbutting-nations-about-energy-security.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
“The South China Sea functions as the throat of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans—the mass of connective economic tissue where global sea routes coalesce.” See Robert D. Kaplan, Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific (Random House, New York, 2014), p. 17.
- 17.
See Sam Bateman, “China’s latest moves to control the South China Sea”, East Asia Forum (June 5, 2018), http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/06/05/chinas-latest-moves-to-control-the-south-china-sea/.
- 18.
See Xu Dai, “Strategy of the South China Sea ”, Grass Root Blog (May 25, 2013), http://www.360doc.com/content/13/0525/11/9852282_288039906.shtml.
- 19.
James Laurenceson, “Is China Really a Threat to Maritime Trade?”, East Asia Forum (June 4, 2017), http://www.australiachinarelations.org/content/china-really-threat-maritime-trade. See also Editors, “Chinese Security and Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea ”, East Asia Forum (June 5, 2017), http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2017/06/05/chinese-security-and-freedom-of-navigation-in-the-south-china-sea/.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Editor “US Navy in South China Sea : ‘We’re Here’ No Matter China’s Military Buildup”, East Asia, VOA News (February 17, 2018), https://www.voanews.com/a/us-navy-south-china-sea-china/4259529.html.
- 24.
See Hugh White, The China Choice: Why We Should Share Power (Oxford University Press, New York, 2013), pp. 1–2.
- 25.
Editor, “Russia Delivers 4 Su-30MK2 Fighter Jets to Vietnam”, Global Military Review (June 2011), http://globalmilitaryreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/russia-delivers-4-su-30mk2-fighter-jets.html.
- 26.
Supra note 18.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
See Editor, “Facts and Policy of the China-Philippine Dispute in the South China Sea ”, Beijing Review (July 16, 2018), http://www.bjreview.com/World/201607/t20160713_800062259_3.html.
- 29.
Editor, “Pursuing Joint Development while Shelving Disputes ”, Baike, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%90%81%E7%BD%AE%E4%BA%89%E8%AE%AE%EF%BC%8C%E5%85%B1%E5%90%8C%E5%BC%80%E5%8F%91/10218304.
- 30.
See Zewei Yang, “The Principle of ‘Shelving Disputes and Joint Development ’: Dilemma and Wayout” 13 (3) Journal of Jiangsu University (2011) 70–71. See also Yongming Jin, “Empirical Researches on Non-Application of Legal Means to Territorial Disputes over Nansha Islands and Reef” 20 (4) Pacific Journal (2012) 20–21.
- 31.
Articles 74 and 83 of the UNCLOS state that the delimitation of the continental shelf, exclusive economic zone between States with opposite or adjacent coasts shall be effected by agreement on the basis of international law. If no agreement can be reached within a reasonable period of time, the states concerned, in a spirit of understanding and cooperation, shall make every effort to enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature and, during this transitional period, not to jeopardize or hamper the reaching of the final agreement. Such arrangements shall be without prejudice to the final delimitation. United Nations, Convention on the Law of the Sea, Dec. 10, 1982, 1833 U.N.T.S. 397.
- 32.
Supra note 30.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
Ibid. See also supra note 18.
- 35.
See Xiaoxuan Wang, “The Current Situation in the South China Sea and Our Countermeasures”, 360doc, http://www.360doc.com/content/13/1206/16/6017453_334992020.shtml. See also supra note 30. See also Ying Huang, The Research on Solving Approach of the South China Sea Disputes (unpublished LLM theosis, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, 2012) 30–36, available at https://max.book118.com/html/2015/1204/30784757.shtm.
- 36.
See John Ford, “The Pivot to Asia Was Obama’s Biggest Mistake”, The Diplomat (January 21, 2017), https://thediplomat.com/2017/01/the-pivot-to-asia-was-obamas-biggest-mistake/.
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Wei, Y. (2019). Energy Security and Territorial Disputes. In: Issues Decisive for China’s Rise or Fall. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3699-7_5
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