Two academics have come up with a novel proposal on how China can start a paradigm shift in the disputes in the South China Sea: Base its claims on the largest disputed islands. This brings it in line with international law – and allows for joint exploration of overlapping areas with other claimants.

THE testimony on Feb 5 of United States Assistant Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific Daniel Russel, before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, has reopened calls for China to clarify its maritime claims in the South China Sea.

Mr Russel argued that, consistent with the international law of the sea, all maritime claims must be derived from land features. He further stated that claims in the South China Sea that are not derived from land features, such as those apparently based on China’s so-called “nine-dashed line”, are fundamentally flawed.

… The first writer is the Director of the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University.