China’s expanding military presence and assertive conduct provoked strong concerns among Western nations about the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. United States-led naval operations in contested areas have emerged as the preferred countermeasure thereto. However, diverging legal positions, complex territorial and maritime disputes, and growing aspirations to enlarged national spheres of influence have resulted in unintended outcomes. Recently, a flurry of diplomatic statements and several largescale naval exercises have further elevated tensions.
• A series of controversies over oceanographic surveying and military-surveillance activities in the South China Sea have brought to the fore the long-standing struggle between coastal states and naval powers as it shaped the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
• The US and China hold diametrically opposed views on the rights and freedoms
of warships to navigate through territorial seas and operate in exclusive eco-
nomic zones (EEZs). While China has been instrumentalising UNCLOS provi-
sions and claims to historic rights as a security-political shield, the US has been
striving to safeguard its armed forces’ freedom to manoeuver in East Asian seas.
• China’s attempt to control almost the entire South China Sea and US-led ef-
forts to push back against the former’s generally rising global influence have
politicised the US Navy’s Freedom of Navigation Operations and obscured their
objectives. Never designed to counter territorial claims, these have come to re-
present “shows of force.”
• To put a halt to the accelerating militarisation of the South China Sea, the US
and China need to overcome geopolitical tunnel visions regarding one another.
Also, all coastal states have to recast their claims in conformity with UNCLOS
and seek cooperative arrangements as the basis for future settlements.

Policy Implications
European diplomats and defence officials should encourage Southeast Asian
governments to reduce, delimit, and regulate their overlapping territorial sov-
ereignty, EEZ, and continental shelf claims. Unlike extra-regional powers’ blunt
shows of force, such an alignment would put pressure on China and further the
rule of international law. Europe should also encourage the US to ratify UNCLOS
so as to increase the credibility of its position