T

he world enters 2016 with the obligation to confront numerous worrying challenges, from the sudden outbreak of confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia to North Korea'€™s H-bomb test, as well as terrorist attacks in Turkey, Burkina Faso, Indonesia and Pakistan.

Adding to these security concerns is China'€™s unprecedented actions in the South China Sea, which present the potential for serious uncertainties in one of the most crucial and geo-strategically important areas in the world.

Having completed the construction and installation phase of developing artificial islands over the reefs and rocks it had illegally occupied in the Spratlys, on Jan. 1 China began conducting test flights of civilian aircraft on Vietnam'€™s Chu Thap (Fiery Cross) Reef, underscoring Beijing'€™s intention to continue its occupation and domination of an area critical to Southeast Asian commerce and world trade, as well as navigation of the high seas.

More seriously, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, China flight plans were conducted in the Ho Chi Minh City Flight Information Region (FIR) managed and controlled by Vietnam; the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) made no effort to notify its Vietnamese counterpart of its plans and intentions, thus suggesting that Beijing has no intention of playing by the rules and routines of normal overflight.

From Jan. 1 to 8, China conducted 46 flights in the FIR managed by Vietnam. This violates not only Vietnam'€™s sovereignty, but also regulations such as the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its annexes concerning rules of the air, especially Annex 2 and Annex 11, thus threatening the safety of international flights over this area, and driving home the extent to which China is prepared to turn its back on such international agreements.

Clearly, China'€™s actions contravene its statement that the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea does not affect the freedom and safety of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and that peace and stability in the area is still guaranteed. Just imagine the consequences of an air collision in the South China Sea and the impact of such an event on safety, commerce and security.

Worse still, while China'€™s violations of the Ho Chi Minh City FIR continue, beginning on Jan. 16, China moved the oil rig Hai Yang Shi You 981 to the area between the continental shelf in the central part of Vietnam and China'€™s Hainan Island.
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China needs to stop all construction work aimed at creating artificial islands.

This is reminiscent of China'€™s insertion of the HD 981 rigs in the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam in the period from May 1 to July 15, 2014, which caused significant complications in the Vietnam'€“China relationship and introduced security uncertainties for the entire region.

China'€™s recent activities in the South China Sea show Beijing'€™s willingness to expand the scale of its activities in the areas, and to take increasingly dangerous steps that fly in the face of its claims to desire a peaceable, rational and negotiated solution to these matters.

China has long acknowledged Hainan as the southernmost point of China'€™s territory.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has asserted its sovereignty over the Paracels and the Spratlys from at least the 17th century. At the San Francisco Conference in September 1951, 50 out of 51 participating countries did not protest when prime minister Tran Van Huu of the State of Vietnam affirmed Vietnam'€™s sovereignty over the Paracels and the Spratlys.

At the same time, China'€™s claims regarding these two islands were met with outright rejection from 46 out of 51 participating countries. In addition to that, the Cairo Declaration of 1943 and the Potsdam Agreement of 1945 never mentioned a word of China'€™s administration of these two islands.

During the Vietnam War in 1957-1974, China attacked and then occupied the western and then the eastern part of the Paracels.

China waged a brief war to take over Da Gac Ma or Johnson Reef and some other rocks and islets from Vietnam in 1988.

Since then China has continued to assert its presence and sustained its occupation of both the Paracels and the Spratly Islands in an attempt to dominate the entire South China Sea. It is difficult for China to disavow that it is pursuing an approach in the South China Sea that amounts to maritime colonialism.

China'€™s construction and reinforcement of the artificial islands in the Spratlys goes against the spirit of the Joint Statement DOC, which focuses on maintaining the status quo and discouraging acts that might further complicate the situation.

Moreover, these Chinese actions explain why the negotiations between ASEAN and China on the Code of Conduct (COC) have taken so much time and yielded no substantive progress toward an agreement on the COC.

Given Chinese behavior, there is every reason to believe that Beijing will continue the construction of the artificial islands in the South China Sea and when it finally signs a COC with ASEAN, China will be in a much strengthened position that will enable it to tell ASEAN to take it or leave it, without substantially compromising Beijing'€™s advantage, and without the need to accommodate ASEAN'€™s primary interests.

China'€™s actions in the South China Sea are contrary to the Agreement on the Basic Principles Guiding the Settlement of the Sea Issues between the two countries and the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

After the visit to Vietnam by the Chinese president in November, and following the visit to China by the chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam in December, China agreed to refrain from further complicating the situation.

China'€™s current activities in the South China Sea are unarguably contrary to those promises.

What China'€™s ambassador to ASEAN, Xu Bu, wrote in The Jakarta Post of Jan. 14, in an article entitled '€œMaintaining Peace and Stability in the South China Sea'€, underscores the extent to which the region needs to resolve this problem goes beyond words. Concrete deeds will help untangle the challenges that the South China Sea represents to peace and stability in ASEAN.

In particular, China needs to stop all construction work aimed at creating artificial islands and China must cease acts that alter the status quo and militarize the South China Sea.

China should commit to the maintenance of the status quo, and quickly terminate the construction of an airport on Fiery Cross Reef, since this threatens the sovereignty of Vietnam, peace and stability in the region and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea.

China should fully implement the DOC, reach an agreement with ASEAN on the COC at the earliest opportunity in a constructive manner and commit to resolving disputes on the basis of international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

These are three initial but essential steps that will go a long way toward assuring peace, stability and security for the Southeast Asian region, which of course would serve the long-term interests of China as well.
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The writer is Ambassador of Vietnam to Indonesia.