Context: The Philippine coast guard has removed a floating barrier placed by China’s coast guard in the South China Sea.

Key Issue

• China installed a 300-metre-long barrier at the entrance to the lagoon at Scarborough Shoal to prevent Filipino fishing boats from entering the lagoon.

• The move by China was the violation of International Law and against the sovereignty of the Philippines.

Background

• Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea has long been a source of tension between the countries. 

• China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, including the Second Thomas Shoal, based on historical records dating to the Xia dynasty, nearly 4,000 years ago.

• Beijing has illustrated its claim to the critical maritime area with a vague, U-shaped “nine-dash line”.

• But a tribunal at The Hague, based on a suit brought by the Philippines, ruled in 2016 that China had no “historic title” over the waters of the South China Sea and that its nine-dash line and historic claims were superseded by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. China has ignored the ruling, however.

Scarborough Shoal

• Scarborough Shoal sits 240 km west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 km from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.

• It is a prime fishing spot and within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), it has been the site of decades of on-off disputes over sovereignty.

• Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries have jurisdiction over the natural resources within about 200 nautical miles (370 km) of their shore.

Nine Dash Line

• China stakes claim to 90% of the South China Sea, and this claim is based on the U-shaped nine-dash line etched on map in the 1940s by a Chinese geographer.

• He helped to officially name each chunk of rock and reef, referring to the territory collectively as the ‘South China Sea Islands.

• These lines cuts into the exclusive economic zones, or EEZs, of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. 

• An arbitral tribunal in July 2016 ruled that Chinese claims of historic rights within the nine-dash line were without legal foundation. 

• In recent years, China has doubled down on its territorial claims in the SCS, including in the waters off the Philippines, where Chinese vessels have engaged in brazen acts of provocation.

Significance of the South China Sea

• It is a major shipping route. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates that over 21% of global trade transited through these waters in 2016. 

• It is also home to rich fishing grounds that provide for the livelihoods of millions of people across the region. More than half of the world’s fishing vessels operate in this area. 

• Although largely uninhabited, the Paracels and the Spratlys may have reserves of natural resources around them. 

• Control of the sea lane would allow China to potentially disrupt, or threaten to disrupt, cargo shipments travelling to and from all countries in East and Southeast Asia.

• China could also deny foreign military forces, particularly the United States’, access to the maritime region. 

• Additionally, the South China Sea may contain massive oil and natural gas reserves beneath its seafloor. 

• Sovereignty over the region could also give China a level of energy security and independence far beyond what it currently possesses.