Sino - US Maritime Mutual Trust Mechanism: Causes, Achievements And Limitations

Modern mainstream international relations theories hold no unanimous ideas on whether confidence relationship can be established between countries, nevertheless, out of fear of war and desire for peace, it has become an international practice for countries to build confidence measures to avoid conflicts. From the US-Soviet maritime safety mode during the cold war to the establishment of OSCE, the practice of confidence-building measures have been constantly duplicated and achieved good results. Since 1998, China and the United States have been committed to establishing bilateral maritime mutual-trust mechanism. In recent years, with the enhancement of China naval strength and the continuous fermentation of territorial disputes between China and its neighboring countries, the intention that the strategic military deployment of the US in the Asia-Pacific region contraposes China is more conspicuous. Taking protecting national interests as an excuse and based on unilaterally approved international law, the United States has repeatedly carried out vessel close-in surveillances in the maritime disputed areas, having several frictions with China which almost led to war. Hence, there exist obvious limitations of the Sino-US maritime confidence-building mechanism in utility.