South China Sea and the New Great Game /

In my opinion, achieving the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has been the greatest dream of the Chinese people since the advent of modern times.”1 To realize the dream, President Xi Jinping set two ambitious goals for China during his speech: to achieve a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2021, and to build China into a moder [...] Bolstering naval resources will provide the needed impetus to PLAN’s 1985 operational concept of “the first island chain”, which seeks to control the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea.3 The white paper also reconfirmed that “China’s armed forces will unswervingly adhere to the principle of the Communist Party of China’s absolute leadership….” Equally important, the white paper [...] The Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations stated in 2009 that “China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters, and enjoys sovereign rights and jurisdiction over relevant waters as well as the seabed and subsoil thereof (see attached map)”. [...] Page 2 by Marius Grinius June, 2016 South China Sea and the New Great Game LAW OF THE SEA/LAW OF THE JUNGLE Maritime behavior and maritime territorial sovereignty are generally guided by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which entered into force in 1994 and has 167 signatories, including China. [...] China’s response was to boycott the proceedings, arguing that the Permanent Court had no jurisdiction in the matter.19 More recently, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “the crux of the China-Philippine disputes in the South China Sea is the territorial dispute caused by the Philippines’ invasion and illegal occupation of some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha Islands, as well as th