South China Sea territorial clashes threaten environmental catastrophe

South China Sea territorial clashes threaten environmental catastrophe

The sea is bordered by Vietnam to the west, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei on the east, Indonesia and Malaysia on the south and China and Taiwan to the north, measuring 600 by 1,200 nautical miles. The tiny Spratly Islands chain, a collection over 700 islands, reefs, atolls and cays in the center of the seas, have been the most recent focus of the sovereignty struggle.

China and its rivals have occupied some of the Spratly locations with military outposts or civilian facilities over the past six decades. Brunei claims control but does not physically occupy the islands, and this month Japan has begun forging security ties with Vietnam and the Philippines.

China’s Asian rivals are increasingly using the environmental argument against their giant neighbor to jockey for advantage in the South China Sea.

Beijing’s recent construction of a string of artificial islands in the waterway “is causing widespread destruction of the region’s biodiversity” that will “irreparably damage the entire ecological balance in the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea,” Irene Susan Natividad, the Philippines‘ deputy representative to the United Nations, told a U.N. Security Council session this month.

“Such irreversible damage will have long-term effects on all the peoples across geopolitical boundaries who have depended on the sea for their livelihood for generations,” she said.

In the strongest statement of concern to date from U.S. officials, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, at a conference in Australia last month accused Beijing of building “a Great Wall of Sand.” He said China’s construction of the artificial islands in the waterway is “unprecedented,” adding 1.5 square miles of artificial land mass in recent months.

“How China proceeds will be a key indicator of whether the region is heading toward confrontation or cooperation,” Adm. Harris said.

Gregory Poling, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said “anxiety and the expanded patrol and surveillance capacity that Beijing is constructing with facilities, docks and probably at least one airstrip in the Spratly Islands will complicate the disputes in the South China Sea.”

Last year, a standoff over China’s construction of a $1 billion, 40-story oil rig erected approximately 120 miles from Vietnam’s coast generated international headlines. In a surprising move, China agreed to remove the rig after sharp protests from Vietnam.

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