This recent spat between China and the US over the South China Sea was only a continuation of a series of events that point to a growing difficulty in the two countries’ bilateral relations.

Last year, for example, both countries traded accusations with each other over the legality of data gathering by US ship Impeccable. Early this year, China reacted angrily at the announcement of a new US arms sale package to Taiwan.

Indeed, over the last few months, the relationship between the two major powers has deteriorated and increasingly become a cause for concern for regional states. Some analysts have even begun to describe the current state of US-China relations as linked to the prospect of their growing competition for primacy in East Asia. For members ASEAN, what is more worrying is the possibility that the South China Sea could be a central theater for such possible rivalry.

ASEAN countries might have had a mixed feeling regarding the US pronouncement of its national interests in the South China Sea. ASEAN certainly welcomes any suggestion for a peaceful resolution of the dispute, as suggested by Secretary Clinton. As a member of the ARF, the US has every right to voice its concern on any security issue in the region.

After all, the ARF is formed precisely to provide a venue for all members to discuss issues that could affect regional security and stability. And, the South China Sea dispute is one such issue.

Indeed, some ASEAN countries have increasingly been wary of recent Chinese initiatives in the disputed area. China has, for example, unilaterally announced in April this year that it had started regular patrols to reinforce China’s fishing rights in South China Sea. The declaration that South China Sea now constitutes as China’s “core interests” on par with Taiwan, Tibet or Xinjiang, is certainly not lost on ASEAN. ASEAN has also been puzzled by China’s recent move to conduct a large military exercise in the area.

However, ASEAN countries would also prefer that the issue be resolved within an ASEAN-China framework. From an ASEAN point of view, there is no need to “internationalize” the South China Sea disputes beyond such a framework. ASEAN and China has already reached an agreement — the 2002 Declaration of Conducts (DoC) — to resolve the dispute through peaceful means.

Both sides have also declared their commitment to prevent the issue from harming broader ASEAN-China strategic interests in deepening their cooperation.

As the situation in the South China Sea now is facing an unpleasant prospect, both sides need to exercise the responsibility to implement in a more concrete way.

Both ASEAN and China should go back to the promise of the 2002 DoC and begin a more serious effort to transform it into a binding code of conduct.

They can no longer pretend that other countries would not take any interest in how the problem would be resolved by regional stake-holders, especially by some ASEAN claimants and China.

For this agenda to move ahead, it is important that China’s government clarify with the ASEAN counterpart that hard-line voices from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on the issue do not represent China’s official view. Nor are they endorsed by the Chinese government.

Any hard-line attitude, even though it is not directed directly at any ASEAN country, is not helpful in attempts to find a peaceful solution to the problem. In fact, ASEAN and China should understand that the South China Sea issue presents a formidable test for their future relationship.


The writer is the executive director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta.

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