South China sea maritime dispute : sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands

Abstract

The central subject in the South China Sea is over who has power and rule over the islands and their adjacent waters as well as independent right and influence in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf determined from the islands, low-tide elevations, the exclusive economic zone, the continental shelf, maritime boundary delimitation and dispute settlement are all valid and support in resolving and highlighting the issue of the South China Sea. The ASEAN claimants, mostly since 2009, have gone through several procedures and modifications in their demands to clarify their claims trying to make them more legal under UNCLOS. They assert that according to the UNCLOS provisions, rights to the natural resources within the waters in the South China Sea can only be acquired through claims intrinsically related to land. China is following a strategy of not fully clarifying its claims widely trying by that to keep the dispute vague internationally. China has explained its claim to some range, but it is quite not enough or clear hoping that with this vagueness it will reach sovereignty over larger areas. It is left for china to better identify its claims and the principle of the nine-dashed line map subsequently for the claimants to be able to establish in-depth negotiations that might lead to overcoming sovereignty right and pursue cooperative improvement and benefit of the natural resources. A main struggle in the dispute is the gaining authority over the two important islands in the South China Sea which are the Spartly and Paracel. The islands contain a significant amount of resources leading to extensive tensions and competition between the states. Another issue is the classification of such islands that is also still not concluded whether they are recognized as islands and can endure human and economic life or are they only features of rocks. This has resulted in different outcomes to resolve the dispute by either following the extended continental shelf provision, finalizing the sovereignty over the islands or classifying the area to be under High Sea and thus it is governed by the International Seabed Authority. In this regard, having several outcomes to a dispute, it is important to have certain settlements that would lead to a beneficial resolution for all the countries involved.