How China Really Sees The South China Sea Ruling: A Rigged International Order?

John Lee - East Asia Forum

Security, Asia

An important perspective. 

When considering the implications of the South China Sea arbitral award, it is crucial to consider the political context in which China views the decision. The Tribunal stated that the award’s purpose is to facilitate negotiation between the disputants by clarifying their respective rights and obligations, averring that China’s actions have stemmed from a misunderstanding of its rights under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Unfortunately, this likely misreads how China’s leaders view the matter. By all indications, they see at stake fundamental issues of political order, which trump the legal system within which the tribunal operates.

Upholding the historic basis of China’s rights in the South China Sea is a priority for the Chinese Communist Party because of their place in the ‘century of humiliation’ narrative, which is now a key legitimizing discourse for Party rule. It is not a coincidence that the nine-dash-line map was produced by the same (pre-Communist) government that negotiated the end of China’s ‘unequal treaties’. It symbolized a reassertion of Chinese sovereignty against an international system that had been forcibly imposed on East Asia by the West. It also reflected a unilateral concept of historical Chinese authority in the region, with no attempt made to reconcile Western-derived rules of sovereign acquisition with Imperial China’s relationship to overseas territories.

A key aspect of the ‘century of humiliation’ narrative is that China historically exercised legitimate authority over far-flung lands, which was compromised by foreign aggression. This understanding of East Asian history has been so widely internalized within China that the verb commonly used by netizens to describe infringements on China’s rights in the South China Sea (瓜分) is the same one used in history textbooks to describe the nation’s 19th century ‘carving up’ by foreigners.