question_answer

The situation in the South China Sea (SCS), which acts as the Chinese base for its operations in the Indian Ocean, is fast deteriorating with the Chinese aggressiveness. It is pursuing threefold policy to achieve its objective of converting the South China Sea into its lake.

· First, it has created artificial islands changing the geographical features of the region to bolster its claims. In addition, China’'s militarisation of the artificial islands continue unabated despite objections from other countries. In these islands, China has built infrastructure to place its war fighting equipment including missiles, radars, signal jamming systems, ships and fighter aircraft.

· Second, China is weakening the unity among the ASEAN by coercion to ensure that this group does not act unitedly against its interests in the ASEAN meetings.

· Third, China now is increasingly trying to control the EEZs of other nations. Several times in the past China has used intimidation to try to stop ASEAN nations from exploiting their off-shore resources, while making use of resources of EEZs of other countries. Earlier, Indian ships had been intimidated through radio messages from Chinese ships to move out from the Vietnamese EEZ. The Indian oil exploration initiatives in that area had also been threatened by China in the past. China also continue to violate the Philippines'’ EEZ - a country that did not press for the implementation of the Ruling of the PCA after getting the Judgement in its favour.

Legal Challenges ahead:

There are many grey areas in the law of the sea. These include the conduct of maritime scientific research in the waters that other states have sovereign control over. Great powers, rising or Incumbent, tend to interpret international law to suit their interests and convenience.

Weaker ones have no way of enforcing their rights under UNCLOS. More broadly, it is difficult to separate marine scientific research for peaceful and military purposes.

Shi Yan 1 now operates as part of the so-called “"national fleet”" for marine scientific research. Earlier this decade, China consolidated its marine research activities. In this regard, it brought together multiple governmental agencies, ministries and commercial entitles like oil companies under one administrative framework. It will also closely align research with larger maritime goals, civilian and military, set by the party-state. In the past, China'’s marine science research was confined to near seas in the Western Pacific. It now extends to seas all around the world. About half of the marine scientific fleet is reportedly devoted to distant seas.

Objectives for the national science fleet of China:

· To map the sea-bed resources of the world’s ocean's/China has internationally sanctioned licences to explore sea-bed mining in a few areas including in the South-western Indian Ocean.

· To develop large ocean databases that facilitate Chinese naval operations by providing accurate maritime domain awareness.

· To use its national fleet for science diplomacy that adds to building productive maritime and naval cooperation with coastal states across the world.

· It also lets China set the rules for global marine scientific research.

What this incident holds for India?

All major naval powers through history have sought to leverage marine scientific research to broader national objectives, both civilian and military.

The Shi Yan incident is a useful reminder to India on the need to invest more in maritime scientific research. India needs to strengthen its own national capabilities in this regard.

While their national structures may not allow the kind of centralised strategic framework that China has put in place, India and its partners, including the US, Japan, Australia and France, should develop mechanisms for collaborative research in maritime scientific domain. India and its partners must also consider better coordination between their respective maritime science diplomacy initiatives in the region. Such partnerships would provide a sound basis for eventual engagement with China on marine scientific research.

What legal challenges are encountered in the law of the sea?

A) There are grey areas in the law

B) Powerful countries interpret law in their favour

C) Both (a) and (b)

D) Neither (a) nor (b)