Broadening Horizons: "Indo-Pacific" Maritime Politics beyond China

Abstract

China's expanding presence in the South China Sea has prompted European governments to join the United States and its East Asian allies in their mission to secure the "liberal rules-based order" across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Yet without understanding the historical and regional contexts, efforts at strengthening the rule of international law may well produce the opposite of the desired outcome. In 2016, the Chinese government refused to participate in and accept the outcome of the Philippines-induced arbitration proceedings concerning the interpretation of "historical rights" and the designation of "islands" according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in the South China Sea. Against the background of President Xi Jinping's rolling out of the Belt and Road Initiative, this reinforced the view - especially in Washington, Tokyo, and Canberra - that China is seeking to overturn the United States-led liberal rules-based order. Yet, the narrow focus on Chinese actions distracts from the broader political context. Policymakers' preoccupation with nationally conceived "sea lanes of communication" and conflation of the freedom of navigation for warships with the economic reality of transnationally interconnected maritime transport routes has exacerbated long-standing maritime disputes. Predictions about China's coming global dominance and concomitant efforts to defend the "West" are reminiscent of the Australian, European, and United States reactions to the rise of Japan in the 1980s. This must alert policymakers to the fallacies of tunnel vision on non-Western rising powers. European decision-makers must resist the temptation to supersize China as a common threat for the purpose of fixing transatlantic relations and overcoming discord within the European Union. The further militarisation of Indo-Pacific seas can only be avoided if all militarily present actors ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and related agreements. They must also acknowledge that the Convention is the result of a grand political bargain, take others' security concerns into account, and focus on the preservation of the marine environment.