Maritime disputes in the South China Sea are once again hitting the headlines. Vietnam and China are at odds over a recent incident between a Vietnamese survey ship and Chinese patrol boats in waters off the southern coast of Vietnam, and the Philippines is protesting against China’s recent unloading of building materials on Amy Douglas Bank, an area claimed by the Philippines. The disputes underline the fact that the geopolitical competition between China and the United States of America is in full swing. The Obama administration tried to pursue a policy of cooperative strategic engagement vis-à-vis China. It attempted to construct a partnership under the assumption that China wants to operate within the international order, given that the US and China share same threats and interests. As Hillary Clinton suggested, the multi-polar world would be a multi-partner world where the US could use its unique global role to foster cooperation among major powers for collective benefits.

China was key to this worldview. The Obama administration went all out to woo Beijing. Obama refused to meet the Dalai Lama, did not raise the issue of human rights while visiting China last year, postponed the decision to sell arms to Taiwan, and downgraded India in the US’s strategic calculus. But China read these as signs of US decline and saw an opportunity to assert itself as never before. The regional allies of the US became nervous and urged it to restore its traditional leadership in the region. This changing Sino-US dynamic is palpable in the issue of expansive claims in the South China Sea and the US’s response to the challenge. The US has undertaken military exercises with South Korea to underline commitments and has offered to mediate on disputes in the South China Sea, much to Beijing’s irritation. Beijing has claimed that the bulk of the South China Sea constitutes Chinese territorial waters. This came as a shock to the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, which also have territorial claims in the sea. This sea passage is too important to be controlled by a single country, that too by one located far away from these waters. Clinton responded that the US was willing to help in mediating conflicting claims in the South China Sea, thereby drawing clear red lines for China. China has made strident claims to virtually the entire South China Sea in recent years. This has resulted in the detention of hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen, the harassment of the US and other navies, and threats to international oil giants.

After being on the sidelines of the South China Sea dispute for two decades, the US has decided to change its posture to reassure its allies in the region that China’s growing regional dominance would not go unchallenged. The dispute in the South China Sea is not merely about resources, it is also central to China’s ambitions of a blue water navy, able to operate away from its shores. The South China Sea has also suddenly assumed significance arguably because of the SSBN base China has chosen to build in Hainan to the south, partly enveloped by the Vietnamese coast.

Last year, there were reports of confrontations involving the Malaysian navy, the Indonesian navy and the Vietnamese navy, each separately with the People’s Liberation Army Navy. In April 2011, a flotilla of 10 ships of the Chinese navy’s East Sea Fleet conducted exercises involving passage through international waters. During these exercises, two Chinese navy helicopters came within about 90 metres of a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer of Japan watching over the exercises. More significantly, weeks before this incident, six ships of the Chinese navy’s North Sea Fleet, based in Qingdao, passed through waters between the Okinawa and Miyako-jima islands, headed to the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, and went on to operate in the South China Sea. By purposely deploying the North Sea Fleet, China was demonstrating its great interest in this sea area.

Japan’s dispatch of SDF transport vessels to participate fully in the humanitarian aid operation, ‘Pacific Partnership’, led by the US early this year, was meant as a response to China’s moves. This is happening even as South Korea is re-evaluating its ties with China. Seoul is disillusioned with Beijing’s shielding of North Korea from the global outrage over the Cheonan incident when North Korea torpedoed the warship, ROKS Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors last March. China watered down a presidential statement from the United Nations security council condemning the attack in which North Korea was not even identified as the culprit. As a result, no punishment was meted out.

China would like to extend its territorial waters to include the entire exclusive economic zone. It is challenging the fundamental principle of free navigation. All maritime powers, including India, have a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea. But India should also be aware of the changing balance of power between the US and China and fashion its foreign policy accordingly.