ASEAN unity and the threat of Chinese expansion

ASEAN unity and the threat of Chinese expansion





Are China's expanding territorial claims in the South China Sea going to bring Southeast Asian countries together?

Last updated: 26 May 2014 07:47






China's advancement in the South China Sea has fuelled tensions with Vietnam and the Philippines [EPA]


Shortly after US President Barack Obama's recent visit to Asia, where he underscored Washington's commitment to remain as an anchor of stability in the region, a new crisis erupted in the South China Sea. Pressing its territorial claims in adjacent waters, China dispatched HYSY981, a state-of-the-art deep-sea rig, which belongs to the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), well into Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Chinese officials tried to justify the move by describing it as a natural progression of CNOOC's surveillance operations in the contested waters, but most analysts believe that political considerations, as opposed to commercial calculations, were behind China's latest territorial manoeuvre. The HYSY981 was reportedly accompanied by an armada of Chinese para-military vessels.


Vietnam responded in kind by dispatching around 30 naval vessels to fend off what it saw as a de facto Chinese occupation of hydrocarbon-rich waters claimed by Hanoi. It didn't take long before Hanoi shared a video alleging Chinese harassment of Vietnamese naval vessels. Soon, large-scale anti-Chinese protests engulfed Vietnam, leading to massive destruction of factories owned by Chinese and Taiwanese investors, and precipitating an exodus of thousands of Chinese citizens.

Meanwhile, the Philippine marine forces apprehended 11 Chinese fishermen on charges of illegal capture of endangered species, and released photos alleging Chinese construction activities on the disputed Johnson South Reef in the Spratly chain of islands.

With Beijing openly challenging Washington's commitment to ensure freedom of navigation in international waters, the US State Department directly blamed China for sparking renewed tensions in the South China Sea. Concomitantly, up to 5,500 US and Filipino troops participated in the annual "Balikatan" joint-military exercise in the South China Sea - underscoring deepening Philippine-US military cooperation amid rising Chinese territorial assertiveness.

The dangerous uptick in regional geopolitical tensions coincided with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Myanmar, the current chair of the regional body. Worried about the implications of ongoing territorial spats, the ASEAN expressed its "serious concern" and called for the resolution of maritime disputes in accordance to international law.

Long dismissed as a feeble regional body, the ASEAN has nevertheless emerged as a critical component of any prospective resolution of the South China Sea disputes in a peaceful, diplomatic fashion. But China's immense - and growing - economic influence over its Southeast Asian neighbours will continue to complicate efforts at establishing a unified ASEAN position on the issue.

A dynamic backyard

The establishment of the ASEAN was driven by the exigencies of the Cold War, with the West and its regional allies aggressively resisting communist expansion. Beyond serving as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism, there were also endogenous motivations in play: Leading Southeast Asian countries sought to put aside their territorial disputes and political differences in order to focus on nation-building and regional integration.





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Inspired by a burgeoning process of regional integration in Europe, Southeast Asian leaders opted for a "soft" model of regional integration, serving as a platform for confidence-building among members and strategic coordination on issues of common concern. The founding members placed great emphasis on consensus-building and consultation.

There was, however, minimal investment in the bureaucratic capabilities of the ASEAN per se, with member countries opting for organisational flexibility, symbolic cooperation, norm advocacy, and institutionalised dialogue.

Given their considerable divergence in economic competitiveness and political outlook, the establishment of a supranational organisation - similar to the European Union - was largely out of the question.

The end of Cold War precipitated the progressive expansion of the ASEAN's membership, with former communist countries in Indo-China welcomed as organic members of a greater Southeast Asian community. Riding on a decades-long economic boom, trade and investment considerations fuelled a sustained process of regional integration, as member countries - new and old - relaxed barriers on transport of goods, labour and services among themselves.

Successfully avoiding war among its members, the crowning achievement of the ASEAN, however, was the gradualintegration of post-Mao China into the regional order. Throughout the 1990s, a rapidly industrialising China activelycourted the ASEAN's favour. Beijing was eager to reduce its international isolation and gain access to basic commodities. Southeast Asian states such as Singapore and Thailand, in turn, served as diplomatic bridges between Beijing and the broader Asia-Pacific neighbourhood. Under the aegis of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN also sought to mediate relations among great powers of Asia, namely Japan, China, Russia and the US.

The inflection point

From the 1990s to mid-2000s, there was a fortuitous convergence of ASEAN diplomatic pro-activeness, on one hand, and Chinese "charm-offensive" across Asia, on the other. Determined to avoid a military conflict in the South China Sea, the ASEAN brokered the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DoC), which has served as the foundational document for peaceful resolution of regional territorial disputes. This was followed by a rapid pace of deepening economic linkages between China and the ASEAN, with Beijingemerging as Southeast Asia's biggest trading partner by the first decade of the 21st century.








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Soon, however, diplomatic complacency undermined earlier efforts at sustaining stability in the region. There were hardly any concrete efforts to build on the DoC, namely the establishment of a legally-binding Code of Conduct (CoC) in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, China continued to leverage its economic influence in the region, preventing a unified ASEAN position on the South China Sea disputes.

By 2012, as territorial tensions between Beijing and Manila reached dangerous levels, China pressured Cambodia to use its ASEAN chairmanship to block any relevant discussion of the issue.

For the first time in its history, the ASEAN foreign ministers failed to even agree on issuing a joint-statement, with Cambodia and the Philippines locked in bitter diplomatic exchanges.

Determined to avoid an intra-ASEAN breakdown, influential regional countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore stepped up their efforts to build consensus on the South China Sea disputes, which culminated in the"Six Point Principles" initiative, underscoring the importance of peacefully resolving territorial disputes. By 2013, the ASEAN, under Brunei's chairmanship, pressured China to get back to the negotiating table and discuss the establishment of a legally-binding CoC.

Still, China stepped up its territorial posturing, setting off alarm bells across the region. In response, Malaysia began coordinating its territorial position with the Philippines and Vietnam, while Indonesia openly questioned the legality of China's sweeping territorial claims across the South China Sea.

The Philippines and Vietnam have also stepped up their cooperation, with Hanoi openly threatening legal action against Beijing over recent territorial spats. Upon assuming the chairmanship of the ASEAN, Myanmar eagerly sought to display its willingness to act as a responsible and pro-active Southeast Asian state. Amid a period of domestic political liberalisation, Myanmar has actively diversified its foreign relations, reducing its dependence on China.

It is no wonder that the latest ASEAN Summit saw greater determination on the part of Southeast Asian leaders to establish unity on the South China Sea disputes, calling for all parties to resolve their disputes in accordance to international law.

Nevertheless, the ASEAN fell short of naming as well as directly blaming China for the ongoing tensions and refused to openly side with Vietnam amid the ongoing standoff in the South China Sea. Given the dependence of many Southeast Asian countries on trade and investment linkages with China, Beijing will no doubt try its best to leverage its economic might and forestall efforts at developing a robust regional response to the ongoing territorial disputes.

Chechens in Donetsk?! I didn’t order it, tell me more’ – Kadyrov on CNN report

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The head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, denied allegations of Chechen fighters being sent to eastern Ukraine, spun by Western and pro-Kiev media. CNN even interviewed one man on the subject, claiming he was a “former Russian cop.”

Looking for “Moscow’s hand” destabilizing Ukraine and its presidential elections, the news machine of the Ukrainian authorities and their Western allies has gone at length – finally producing reports of Chechen fighters arriving to assist the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk.

When asked about the allegations, Chechnya’s President Kadyrov said he was unaware, but very interested.

“If there are Chechens there, I know nothing about it. But if this information is correct, I’d love to know who exactly is there and why,” Kadyrov told Russian media on Monday.

“If the West wants to portray this as if we were sending our guys there, well, all our fighters are at home,” Kadyrov stressed.

Anti-goverment militants parade marking Donetsk and Lugansk regions' independence from Ukraine in Donetsk on May 25, 2014 (AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply)

To this date, the allegations of foreign involvement in the Ukrainian conflict – except the well-documented American-EU interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs – have been based on poor photographic evidence and rumors, which even once got the US State Department into trouble.

On Sunday, however, luck was seemingly on the side of the US media frantically looking for signs of Moscow’s meddling in the crisis, as CNN found a truckload of alleged Chechen militants, right in the center of Donetsk.

Calling it “a startling insight into how involved Russia may be here,” a CNN journalist approached the “gunmen from Chechnya” grouped with several other trucks of the Vostok Battalion, recently formed from Donetsk Region self-defense fighters.

When asked, a man introduced as a Chechen national told CNN that he was there “to protect the interests of the Russian Federation,” adding that his group arrived to Donetsk “on our own, as volunteers.” The unnamed man also said he was a former “Kadyrovets” – meaning, one of Kadyrov’s men, and that he previously fought in Chechnya.

The CNN reporter got no reply on whether the man used to serve as a Russian law enforcement officer, but appeared to be willing to push his own line of Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. Commenting on his findings, the journalists said that “it is hard to imagine how a former and armed policeman from Grozny could have got here without [Russian President] Putin’s government knowing about it.” It is unclear, how the reporter learned the man was indeed a policeman from Grozny, as nothing in the footage seems to confirm that.

Dinosaur tail found in Mexico

A team of palaeontologists has discovered the fossilised remains of a 72m-year-old dinosaur tail in a desert in northern Mexico, according to the country's National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH).

Unusually well preserved, the five-metre (16ft) tail (above) was the first ever found in Mexico, said Francisco Aguilar, INAH's director in the border state of Coahuila.

The team, made up of palaeontologists and students from INAH and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, identified the fossil as a hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur. The tail, found near the small town of General Cepeda, probably made up half the dinosaur's length, Aguilar said.

Palaeontologists found the 50 vertebrae of the tail completely intact after spending 20 days in the desert slowly lifting a sedimentary rock covering the creature's bones.

Strewn around the tail were other fossilised bones, including one of the dinosaur's hips, INAH said.

Dinosaur tail finds are relatively rare, according to INAH. The new discovery could improve understanding of the hadrosaur family and aid research on diseases that afflicted dinosaur bones, which resembled those of humans, Aguilar said.

Scientists have already determined that dinosaurs suffered from tumours and arthritis, for example.

Dinosaur remains have been found in many parts of the state of Coahuila, in addition to Mexico's other northern desert states.

"We have a very rich history of paleontology," Aguilar said.

He noted that during the Cretaceous period, which ended about 65m years ago, much of what is now central northern Mexico was on the coast. This has enabled researchers to unearth remains of both marine and land-based dinosaurs.

The presence of the remains was reported to INAH by locals in June 2012. After initial inspections, excavation began earlier this month. The remains of the tail will be transferred to General Cepeda for cleaning and further investigation.

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Note : The above story is based on materials provided by Reuters