In a statement issued by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting yesterday in Myanmar, leaders have urged Southeast Asian nations to exert self-restraint on territorial disputes being pursued by China on South China Sea. The ASEAN leaders who had signed in the Naypyidaw-made letter has called for all parties to refrain form taking further actions in their claims to curb potential escalation of tension between countries. Moreover, the group has called for progress on a code of conduct that could be used to seek and preserve the freedom of navigating in the area, which his home to some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
Bloomberg said that at the moment, disputes are already mounting as Asian neighbors had been making moves to fight back Chinese measures to assert its control over the disputed maritime areas. The mainland has since placed an oil rig near the Paracel Islands, which had led to clashes between Vietnamese and Chinese boats last week. The Philippines had detained 11 Chinese fishermen in a contested area over the latter's seizure of hundreds of endangered sea turtles protected by Philippine law. The news agency said that the escalated tensions could risk spilling over to separate disputes over East China Sea areas between Japan and the mainland. Russia, on the other hand, has responded to Chinese claims by increasing air patrols around North Asia.
Professor Liu Jiangyong at the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing said over the phone, "Japan will surely take advantage of the South China Sea tensions to advocate its ‘China Threat Theory'. Japan will likely support or aid Vietnam and the Philippines in challenging China and make the situation even worse," Liu said by phone.
Professor of international politics Mark Beeson at Murdoch University in Perth said, referencing to the mainland's People's Liberation Army, "I'm sure some in China are keen to see how far they can go. The big question is whether this is a coordinated, top-down policy approved by Xi Jinping, (or) whether there's quite a bit of ad hoc policy freelancing by the PLA and provincial governments."
