China And The Southern Sea:Strategies Of A Rising Power In A Local Perspective

The aim of this paper is to analyze the position held by the People’s Republic of China in the context of the South China Sea territorial disputes. Reasons for this study could be tracked down to the development of China as both an economic and political power within the international society. The behavior of this new actor on regional the scene could tell us more about the future of both China as a single country as well as part of international society. The choice of the South China Sea is not an unconsidered one, since recent trends of the issue put China in the difficult position of taking relevant decision for the regional order. The analysis will follow a four-step way:after a quick introduction about the general issue, it will look at how Chinese diplomacy developed in the last few years in order to better understand the official moves of the asian nation. The second part will deal with the recent efforts made by the People’s Liberation Army to strengthen itself and in particular its naval branch. The third section is dedicated to the legal aspects of the dispute in the South China Sea, a needed framework to have a clear idea about the ongoing situation and its links with international law. Finally, some possible outcomes or solutions of the problem will be argued, moving from the previous analysis and considering the delicacy of the situation and the possible rapid evolution, or degeneration, of events. A single answer will not be given, since there are too many variable conditions on the chessboard, but the hope for the author is to give the general readers a clear idea about a hot topic in international relations, while the more specialized ones could get some hints for discussion, deeper analysis and more focused studies.