BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

UNDERSTANDING CHINA’S STANCE ON SOUTH CHINA SEA RULING OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL THROUGH THE LENS OF STRATEGIC CULTURE

Author: Samia Zaman

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2022v43n3a3

ABSTRACT

Given the growing political and security implications of the South China Sea disputes, the Philippines initiated-case in the South China Sea against China garnered a lot of attention. Interestingly, China refused to embrace the Hague Tribunal's ruling that substantially backed the Philippines' claim in the waters of the South China Sea. The Hague Tribunal instituted the arbitral proceedings under the auspices of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). There is a handful of cases when the Asian countries approached the maritime boundary dispute settlement mechanism of UNCLOS. Maritime boundary dispute settlement practices in Asia suggest that there prevails a sense of ambivalence and reluctance among the majority of Asian states to invoke the compulsory arbitration process of the UNCLOS legal regime. Nevertheless, there are substantial legal precedents for amicable resolution of maritime boundary disputes under the institutions of UNCLOS. Whereas Bangladesh/Myanmar case and Bangladesh/India case serve as glaring examples of peaceful maritime boundary dispute settlement under the purview of UNCLOS, China being a signatory to UNCLOS repudiated the Tribunal's ruling. This paper offers a theoretical prism to understand the Chinese act of denouncing the ruling which has furthered the ongoing tension in the contested waters of the South China Sea. Thus, the paper employs the theory of strategic culture to understand China's stance on the South China Sea ruling.