5th

"Bridging Divides"
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STUDY GUIDE

GDWC
"TO TAKE CALLS ON MILITARY CONFLICT."

AGENDA
Discussing China's increasing militarization of
the South China Sea and establishing overseas
military bases in other countries with special
emphasis on Taiwan
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STUDY GUIDE

GDWC
INDEX

1. Introduction to the Agenda

2. History of the Agenda
3. Recent Issues
4. Timeline of Events
5. Proposed Solutions
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STUDY GUIDE

INTRODUCTION TO THE AGENDA

The South China Sea (SCS) is a sea located in the Western Pacific
Ocean where it is bound to the shores of South China, in the east to
the Island of Taiwan, in the South to Borneo and the West to
Mainland Southeast Asia. The SCS accounts for a third of the global
maritime trade. The SCS also holds huge oil, natural gas reserves
and fisheries that sustain millions of people in South East Asia.

The dispute started with the People’s Republic of China (PRC)

claiming that the SCS were regulated since the Han Dynasty (206
BC-220 CE) which were controlled under the tributary system of
the Chinese Empire. The Chinese Empire's dominance of the SCS
ended because of the Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860) where
the Chinese Empire was defeated by the British Empire. After
World War II, the Republic of China (ROC) created the 11-dash lines
that claimed most of the SCS, to which the PRC as the ‘successor
state’ to the ROC continued and modified their claim on the SCS
with the 9-dash lines.

Since 2013, the PRC, the Philippines and Vietnam have claimed and
built several islands in the Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal,
Paracel Islands, and several areas in the Gulf of Tonkin.
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Since 2015, several Western states such as the United States of

America (USA), France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland have established Freedom of Navigation
Operations (FONOP) in the SCS to protect their interest,
particularly on trade routes in the area.

On July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague

based on the Philippine lawsuit that are also supported by Vietnam
and Indonesia ruled against the PRC’s claim on the South China Sea
under Annex VII of the 1982 United NationsConvention on the Laws
of the Sea (UNCLOS) and made the PRC liable based on Article 94 of
the 1982 UNCLOS because of several PRC’s maritime safety
violations in the SCS region. The PRC has called out that the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague’s ruling is null and
void, which follows the PRC continuing its claims on the SCS.
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HISTORY OF THE AGENDA

At the end of World War II and after the defeat of Japan by the Allied
forces, there was a power vacuum in the SCS with no nations in the
area claiming sovereignty over the islands in the SCS. In 1946, the
Republic of China began claiming and occupying several parts of
the Spratly Islands, Woody Island and Paracel Islands, with the
French through their colony in French Indochina began claiming
and occupying Pattle Island. In 1955, the Philippines began claiming
several parts of the Spratly Islands. In 1988, China which is now
named the People’s Republic of China began to aggressively claim
Johnson Reef which killed several Vietnamese People and in 1995
created bunkers in Mischief Reef to guard the PRC’s claims on the
SCS from the Philippines.

In 2002, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and

PRC together signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
the SCS. Which became the foundation of the negotiations for the
code of conduct of the SCS. In 2009, Malaysia and Vietnam sent a
joint submission to the Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf to counter the PRC’s claim at the SCS. As a
reaction, the PRC submitted a map containing the nine-dash line to
assert the PRC’s territorial claim for the majority of the SCS.
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In 2012, the PRC snatched and occupied the Scarborough Shoal

from the Philippines. In 2013, the Philippines filed a lawsuit against
the PRC under the 1982 UNCLOS. In 2014, the PRC began
establishing oil rigs in the waters south of Paracel Island which had
already been claimed by Vietnam. In 2016, the Permanent Court of
Arbitration in The Hague based on the 2013 lawsuit submitted by
the Philippines ruled against the PRC’s claims in the SCS, to which
the PRC called the ruling to be null and void.
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RECENT ISSUES

ASEAN’s Internal Rivalry and Failure to Maintaining Solidarity

Against the PRC in the SCS:
In 2020, the 10 ASEAN Member States held a summit to discuss the
Code of Conduct (CoC) to settle the dispute of the SCS, to which the
PRC welcomes and wishes the competition of the SCS COC by 2021.
However, until now the summit regarding the creation of the SCS
COC had been getting nowhere because of the internal rivalries that
ASEAN have, such as the Malaysia-Vietnam rivalry in the SCS that
resulted in many Vietnamese boatmen killed because of Malaysia’s
Coast Guards and several ASEAN’s Member States concerns on the
Philippines militarization of their territorial waters and claims on
the SCS.

The USA-PRC Tug of War:

The SCS has become the tug of war of influence between the USA
and the PRC, both countries have been countering each other's
influence over the nations in the SCS and on the United Nations as a
whole. Such cases can be seen when the PRC offers Thailand to
build a canal that goes through the Kra Isthmus that will eventually
reduce the cost for Chinese trade in the SCS and reduce the time of
shipment from Saudi Arabia, India, Iran, the European Union, and
the African Union to the PRC.
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As a reaction towards the PRC's proposal to Thailand, the USA

bribed the Government of Thailand to reject the PRC’s proposal and
effectively blocked the construction of the Thai Canal. The USA also
blocks the PRC’s claims on the SCS via UNCLOS and supported the
2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague’s ruling in
regards which rejects the PRC’s claims on the SCS. Since 2015, the
USA with other Western nations such as France, the United
Kingdom of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland (UK) also with the
addition of the Philippines conducted FONOPs and established Sea
Lines of Communications (SLOCs) in the SCS. The objective of the
FONOPs and the SLOCs is to protect the USA, France, UK, and the
Philippines' trade in the SCS and to counter the PRC’s claim and
influence in the region.
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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Timeline Events

The first Chinese documented claim on

the SCS is on the Great
1876 Qing’s documentation and exercise of
jurisdiction on the Paracel Islands

The 1887 Convention Respecting the

Delimitation of
the Frontier Between China and Tonkin
between the Great Qing and the French
1887 Republic as the colonial power over the
Indochinese Union states
that the ownership of the
Spratly Islands and Paracel
Islands were of the Great Qing.
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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

The 1900 Treaty of Washington stated that

all islands on the Philippines Archipelago
1900 that includes the Spratly Islands to be
ceded from the Kingdom of Spain to the
USA

The Empire of Japan claimed the Paracel

1927
and Spratly Islands

The Empire of Japan invaded the Paracel

1939
and Spratly Islands

Based on the 1943 Cairo Declaration and

the 1945 Potsdam Declaration, the
Republic of China accepted the surrender
1945
of the Paracel and Spratly Islands from the
Empire of Japan
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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

To not anger the Republic of China and

as per agreement to the 1898 Treaty of
Paris between USA and the Kingdom of
1947
Spain, the USA reminded the newly
independent Philippines that the Spratly
Islands were not a part of the Philippines.

The Republic of China garrison on the SCS

1950 were driven off from the Spratly and
Paracel Islands by the PRC

Based on the 1952 Treaty of San

Francisco, Japan renounces all claims on
1952
the Paracel and Spratly Islands.
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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Based on the 1954 Geneva Conference,

France gave up their claims on the Paracel
1955
and Spratly Islands to the Republic of
Vietnam.

The PRC released the “Declaration of the

Government of the People’s Republic of
1958 China on China’s Territorial Sea” that form
the nine- dash lines of Chinese claims of
the SCS.

The Philippines claimed the Spratly

1971
Islands.

The PRC defeated the Republic of Vietnam

navy on the 1974 Battle of the Paracel
1974 Islands which establish the PRC de facto
control over the Paracel Islands.
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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam claimed

1975
the Paracel and Spratly Islands.

The PRC defeated the Socialist

1988 Republic of Vietnam navy on the 1988
Johnson South Reef Skirmish.

ASEAN and the PRC signed the

“Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in
2002
the South China Sea”, which establish a
code of conduct in the SCS.

The USA Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton

2010 declared the USA's national interest on the
SCS.
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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

The USA began to establish FONOPs in the

SCS with the patrolling of the USS Lassen in
2015 the region. As a reaction to this, the PRC
began constructing a second aircraft
carrier in Dalian.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the

Hague ruled against the PRC claims on the
South China Sea based of the Philippines
lawsuit to the PRC’s violation of Annex VII
of the 1982 UNCLOS and made the PRC
liable based on Article 94 of the 1982
UNCLOS because of several PRC’s maritime
2016
safety violations in the SCS region. The
court was attended by observers from
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and
Vietnam. The PRC called the Permanent
Court of Arbitration in the Hague’s ruling
as void and continuetheir claims on the
SCS
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PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

Bilateral-Based Negotiations
China’s preferred solution, which is to negotiate territorial disputes
in a bilateral fashion with countries that are directly involved, is due
to China’s dislike of external influence in its affairs. China would
prefer if the disputes can be settled among the parties that are
involved only and have rejected international interference in the
issue, such as the Philippines v. China arbitration ruling in 2016.
However, this solution is opposed by countries such as the United
States, who fear that bilateral negotiations are not fair due to the
imbalance of power between China and the ASEAN countries and
that China can essentially “bully” these countries to accept a
solution under unfavourable Chinese terms.

International Checks and Balances

The United States, which has consistently dispatched naval ships
into the SCS under the guise of “freedom of navigation operations
(FONOPS)”, is likely to intensify these efforts to provide checks and
balances in the region. The United States might encourage other
countries to initiate their own FONOPS in the region for patrol and
security. However, this is controversial as China views the presence
of foreign naval ships in the region as an act of provocation and has
often dispatched its navy to shadow foreign vessels.
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Code of Conduct Establishment

While a discussion of a code of conduct, which refers to the set of
rules that outline expected practices and responsibilities of
countries, has been initiated since 2002 between China and ASEAN,
nothing has come to fruition yet. The UNSC may attempt to ensure
that this process will be finalized soon, although there are doubts
about China’s willingness to follow the rules outlined in any code of
conduct established with ASEAN given their past actions in the
region.

Use of Mediation
The use of mediation in the SCS can be used to resolve
disagreements related to the issues at hand, although the actual
mechanism for this will have to be decided by the delegates
themselves. Delegates may nominate their own country to become
the neutral mediator, for example. However, China’s willingness to
accept an external mediator into its affairs may hinder any
successful attempts at mediation.

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