Why Mike Pompeo’s South China Sea Statement Is So Significant
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s South China Sea statement on Monday is significant for two reasons: It shifts formal U.S. policy and it establishes a quiet jus ad bellum legal foundation for the use of military force against China in these waters.
Let’s start with the shift in U.S. policy. When the United States had previously condemned Chinese claims in the South China Sea, it had also called for regional negotiation to establish territorial ownership rights. This statement endorses a different approach, actively rejecting Chinese claims outright.
“Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful,” the statement said, “as is its campaign of bullying to control them.”
This includes, Pompeo said, the assertion that “Beijing’s harassment of Philippine fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral [Chinese] actions to exploit those resources.” The U.S. now takes the same stance toward the “Vanguard Bank (off Vietnam), Luconia Shoals (off Malaysia), waters in Brunei’s [exclusive economic zone], and Natuna Besar (off Indonesia). Any [Chinese] action to harass other states’ fishing or hydrocarbon development in these waters — or to carry out such activities unilaterally — is unlawful.”
There’s a deliberate disdain in the U.S. language here. The Trump administration isn’t simply rejecting China’s claims. It is suggesting that other regional nations have far better rights to the waters in question. Pompeo wants to impress the idea not simply of China’s claims being unlawful in legal terms but also absurd in practical reality. We see this with his assertion that China has “no lawful territorial or maritime claim to (or derived from) James Shoal, an entirely submerged feature only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and some 1,000 nautical miles from China’s coast.” Fifty nautical miles versus 1,000 nautical miles. (Read more from “Why Mike Pompeo’s South China Sea Statement Is So Significant” HERE)
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