Introduction

The South China Sea (SCS) has been one of the sources of instability in East Asian security for decades. Territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction over islands and reefs in the SCS are contested among the littoral countries including China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei, occasionally causing tensions and even military conflicts between the competing nations. In particular, China provoked serious confrontations by its actions for expanding control of the SCS through exercise of, and/or intimidation by, military force, as Joshua Hastey and Scott N. Romaniuk, and Romaniuk and Tobias Burgers explore in their conceptual chapters (Chapter 1 and 2). In 1974, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China attacked the South Vietnamese army stationing in the Paracel Islands, resulting in China's full control of the islands. China occupied six reefs and rocks in the Spratly Islands by exercising military force against the Vietnamese navy in 1988. In what Ian J. Storey refers to as a “creeping assertiveness,” China put the Mischief Reef under its control, replacing that of the Philippines, through mobilizing warships of the PLA Navy (PLAN) around the reef in 1995.

In the late 1990s, China seemed to cease aggressive actions to expand occupation in the SCS and started to take accommodating behaviours towards the Southeast Asian nations. In 2002, China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the SCS, which declares parties should “resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force.” The DOC gave the regional countries some expectation that Beijing would pursue benign policies, leading to lower tension in the SCS. However, China soon got back to normal to show assertive postures against the competing claimants. In 2008, Chinese patrol vessels belonging to maritime law enforcement agencies started patrol missions on a regular basis in the SCS, and repeatedly obstructed navigation of foreign fishing boats and surveillance vessels. In 2012, Chinese patrol vessels confronted the Philippines’ Coast Guard ships around the Scarborough Shoal and finally established control of the shoal. China's renewed assertive policies raised serious regional concerns about stability in the SCS.

China also directed assertive behaviour against the United States (US) in the SCS. Two Chinese “trawlers,” supported by patrol vessels and a reconnaissance ship of the PLAN, harassed the USS Impeccable operating off the coast of Hainan Island in 2009.