Legal options best for South China Sea: expert
INTERNATIONAL law is the best solution for countries to settle disputes over the South China Sea as the new US administration under Donald Trump was not likely to change the situation dramatically, a US expert on China affairs said Tuesday.
“The law of the sea is very clear about what you do and how to divide common space or join exploration. This is the issue of global commence and ready-made for a solution by multilateral parties by multilateral framework under the umbrella of international law, said Prof David Shambaugh, a China expert at George Washington University.
China and countries in Southeast Asia have had territorial conflicts over the South China Sea for a long time. Last year, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of the Philippines, saying that China had no historic right over the Scarborough Shoal – although Beijing refused to recognise the ruling.
The US under Trump may confront China more over the South China Sea but that was not likely to change China’s position, the academic said.
“China is building artificial islands in the contentious sea and militarising those facilities and that trend is not going to change. The Trump administration will accelerate that trend,” Shambaugh said in a press briefing. “There will be the presence of the US navy in the South China Sea and … high possibility that accidents might occur and I’m worried about military confrontation.”
But the US and China had worked on air and maritime cooperation, “so if there is an accident, there would be an agreed protocol for two sides to communicate”, he said.
