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Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia launched joint marine patrols in 2004, to suppress pirates and maritime terrorism in Southeast Asia. Shortly afterwards they began joint air patrols and information sharing on pirate activity. In September 2004, Thailand joined these patrols and as a result of these efforts piracy in the region is now under control. While incidents of piracy still occur, the rapid growth in incidents of piracy has been successfully curbed.
The success regional states have had in working together to combat piracy is a model for broader cooperation in the South China Sea. The region's states have the capacity to work together to solve regional problems. While China sees regional cooperation as the best means of guaranteeing regional security, the United States continues to maintain a large military presence in the area, which ultimately adds to regional tension and prevents regional states forming an effective, independent regional mechanism to safeguard the waters.
Following the end of the Cold War, the United States has actually increased the number of vessels and troops it deploys in the region. A great many reconnaissance operations and fleet exercises continue to be conducted by U.S. military vessels and aircraft in the South China Sea.
China has long insisted that the presence of such a large number of U.S. forces is excessive and destabilizing. The frequency of aerial reconnaissance has been increased rapidly, and even reached deep into China's coastal waters.
On April 1, 2001, an American EP-3E electronic surveillance aircraft collided with and damaged a Chinese fighter in space over China's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, causing the death of a Chinese pilot. The American aircraft made a forced landing at the Lingshui airport in Hainan. By colliding with a Chinese aircraft and landing without authorization at a Chinese base, the U.S. aircraft violated China's territorial sovereignty.
The incident caused a serious rupture in Sino-U.S. relations. However, the United States, rather than reducing the frequency of flights, has continued to conduct reconnaissance operations over China's exclusive economic zone.
It should be stressed that the legal status of space above a country's maritime zone is governed by treaties and according to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, flights over foreign nations' exclusive economic zones should not breach the lawful rights of that coastal state.
One of the fundamental principles of the law of the sea is to utilize the sea for peaceful purposes and military flights over Chinese waters cannot be construed as having a peaceful purpose. China had made repeated calls for the United States to desist and reduce the scale of its deployment in the South China Sea as the nations in that region have sufficient capacity to guarantee the security of the sea independently.
However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in July 2010, at an ASEAN meeting, that the United States has "a national interest in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea" and the dispute over the highly sensitive South China Sea was a "leading diplomatic priority" and "pivotal to regional security."
If the United States is genuinely concerned with regional security, it should encourage local stakeholders to cooperate rather than adding to tensions by increasing the militarization of the region. The involvement of a major external power inevitably sows discord between regional states as nations seek to ally themselves with the United States to pursue their own advantage, forsaking the principle of regional cooperation.
China has not been the only nation to object to exercises conducted by the United States in the region, and as these exercises often take place in sensitive waters, they strain relations between regional states. Ultimately, the U.S. presence, as it inhibits regional cooperation and sows discord between states, remains the principal threat to the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
While U.S. rhetoric makes out that China is the greatest threat to freedom of navigation in sea, it is clear that firstly, the United States remains the major destabilizing factor in the region, and that secondly, the security of the South China Sea is the responsibility of all regional states and not China alone. Ultimately, the security of the waters will be guaranteed if nations abide by the provisions of international law in general and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in particular.
The author is Director of the Institute of International Humanitarian Law at the Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
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