U.S. Policy On Code Of Conduct In The South China Sea Issue:Review,Evaluation,and Prospect

An important background of the escalation and complexity of the situation in South China Sea partly due to the U.S.strategy of rebalance initiated a rule-based order in this area,which aroused disputes over regional rules.The Importance of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea(COC)has highlighted for it has been served as the unique multilateral issue mechanism and rule framework,which also became an important instrumentality for the U.S.to involve in the South China Sea Issue.With the potential profound changes in the situation and regional order in the South China Sea,analysis of the trend of this COC issue,especially the soft power competition between China and the U.S.such as rule-making and agenda-setting power,will contribute to our deeply understanding the logic behind the U.S.South China Sea policy,which will be helpful for us to study and judge the future situation and regional order in the South China Sea,and then make positive and effective response.The main body of this study consists of eight chapters.Chapter 1 summarized the genesis and consultation process of the COC,as well as policies of direct stakeholders.Chapter 2 analyzed and interpretated the legal framework of the COC as well as existing draft text.Chapter 3 reviewed the policy evolution of the U.S.government on the issue of COC.Chapter 4 explained the main ways and strategies of the U.S.publicly intervention in the COC issue under the rebalancing strategy.Chapter 5 analyzed the motivation and characteristics of the US public intervention in the COC issues under the rebalancing strategy,and then evaluated its policy effectiveness.Chapter 6 compared and analyzed the cognitive differences and policy interaction between China and the United States on the COC issue.Chapter 7examined the prospects of the COC consultation and the US policy trend.Chapter 8put forward China's countermeasures from the strategic,policy and strategic perspectives.Five key conclusions have been drawn through the research of this topic.Firstly,the COC issue as the only multilateral regulatory framework and issue mechanism for regional countries to gather consensus for decades is expected to become the core institutional framework for regional order construction,which together with the regional power structure to shape the future situation of the South China Sea and the regional order.Secondly,the U.S.gradually deepened its concern about the South China Sea issue including the COC in the vertical view after the Cold War.It mainly focused on indirectly impact on COC issue before Obama took office.And then,the U.S.began to openly and directly intervene in this issue under Obama administration's rebalancing strategy.Thirdly,horizontally speaking,the policy orientation of the two parties on the South China Sea issue is different,the Republican Party pays attention to hard power,especially military means including freedom of navigation operations to balance and deter China,while the Democratic Party pays more attention to diplomacy to involve the situation of the South China Sea,including intervened COC issue.Fourth,on COC issue,China and the U.S.have a competitive and interactive relationship between the rising country and the conservative country on the formulation of regional rules.China has made sound policy actions on this issue and achieved obvious policy results.Fifthly,China can largely weaken the U.S.discourse power and influence on the South China Sea issue from the multilateral mechanism and the diplomatic level by promoting COC consultation.However,attention still should be payed to the unfavorable factors at the power structure level in the South China Sea.To this end,it is necessary to properly manage the situation in the South China Sea and seek an early and peaceful resolution of the South China Sea dispute to prevent it from becoming a major obstacle to China's peaceful rise.