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VietnamNet quotes Wang Hanling, Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences, Beijing, China as saying China favors a bilateral access to the South
China sea because the third party would only complicate the situation: "I want to
stress that you (Vietnam) can choose the way to solve the South China Sea that you
think the best one, you can define maritime territorial waters by either this or that
way, but surely you cannot choose your neighbors. China and Vietnam will be
neighbors forever, through generations. I want to reiterate that if not choosing the
way to solve matters as I mentioned above, you (Vietnam) will be incurred by violent
force, even war. This is not good for future."
That sounds like a pretty aggressive thing to say. Do you get the sense that Chinese
at the conference [2nd international workshop on the South China Sea] are setting
out an aggressive position to try to ward off multilateral negotiations?
ANSWER: The Chinese participants at the 2nd international workshop on the South
China Sea are definitely not conveying any aggressive or bellicose attitudes. So far
there has been only one paper by a China specialists, but plenty of interventions
from the floor during question and answer time. The Chinese paper essentially
argued that the focus on bilateral tensions and irritants was misleading because of
the proven track record of cooperation through economic exchange and East Asian
integration. It is the United States that is portrayed as the spoiler. The best
exchanges have been the American and Chinese participants. These exchanges have
not been acrimonious. Yesterday a Vietnamese presenter gave a spirited defence of
Vietnam's position by rejecting a China scholar's claim that Vietnam has recognized
Chinese sovereignty in the South China Sea in the 1970s
The conference is putting China's nine dotted line U‐shaped claim under the legal
microscope and finding that it has not basis in international law. The conference has
heavily focused on the Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and
its prospects as well as the prospects for a code of conduct. Even more productively
has been the close examination of claims for extended continental shelves. The
organisers have cleverly ensured that the foreign delegates do the heavy lifting and
put China in the corner and thus avoid a bilateral China‐Vietnam clash.
2
The papers by the Chinese today focus on the benefits of the fishery agreement in
the Tonkin Gulf and joint development of fisheries resources in the South China Sea.
Yesterday there was only one paper by a China scholar, a co‐authored piece on the
role of the South China Sea in East Asian integration. There was a second paper by a
"Chinese" based in the UK but not a PRC representative. It was narrowly focused on
the status of artificial islands in international law.
In fact more papers have been given by scholars from Taiwan.
The tone of the workshop shifted from differing strategic assessments where great
power were starkest, to an emphasis on how international and other measures could
be used to resolve tensions. No threats of war!