South China Sea Disputes And Malaysia’s South China Sea Policy

The South China Sea issue arose in the 1970s, due to the U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea and the discovery of oil and gas resources in the South China Sea region. In recent years, along with the rise of China and U.S. return to the Asia-Pacific region, the situation in the South China Sea has worsened. Firstly, this article argues that the cause of the South China Sea disputes can be divided into three aspects, namely the geographical aspect, the status of the oil and gas resources, and the geopolitical situation. Due to the complexity of the South China Sea location, coupled with its rich oil and gas resources and its geopolitical particularity as an international waterway for transportation, some parties in the South China Sea as well as external powers have taken radical unilateral actions in the name of different interests. These factors have undermined the stability of the situation in the South China Sea.As one of the claimants of the South China Sea, Malaysia has historically taken a low-key and restrained policy stance to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. In this paper, three perspectives of Malaysia’s South China Sea policy were sorted out and discussed:legal rights, military actions and diplomatic interactions. The formation of Malaysia’s South China Sea policy is accompanied by the gradual improvement of the international law of the sea, which prompted Malaysia to issue laws related to ocean and marine affairs, such as the "Continental Shelf Act". The publishing of an official map in the year of 1979 also indicated Malaysia’s formal announcement of its claim in the South China Sea region. Since then, Malaysia has also reinforced its Royal Navy and sent its troops to occupy the claimed islands, developed the islands in order to strengthen its actual control, while also conducting joint military exercises with neighboring countries and strengthening patrolling in the South China Sea in order to maintain peace and control of the region. On its diplomatic interactions, Malaysia strongly emphasized the principle of non-use of force, and also actively communicated and negotiated with other countries through bilateral and multilateral ways, which achieved many positive consensuses. To solve the South China Sea disputes, Malaysia proposes joint-exploitation of the oil and gas resources and coordination by ASEAN, and opposes excessive intervention of external powers. It recommends that sending the case to the international court should only be the last solution to the disputes.Secondly, the paper analyzes the motivation behind Malaysia’s South China Sea policy. The most important factors are the economic value of oil and gas resources. In addition, another important motivation is to maintain the maritime rights and interests, which can be discussed from the four dimensions of geography, history, security and law.Furthermore, in order to view Malaysia’s South China Sea policy in a broader picture, this paper analyzes the strategic perspective of Malaysia’s South China Sea policy through a case study of the interactions between Malaysia and China. As a regional power in the South China Sea, China’s influence on the situation of the South China Sea is enormous, and the way in which the neighboring countries interact with China will affect the South China Sea situation. This paper presents an analytical framework named the "hedging-type strategy of balancing powers", which means that countries will act based on their perception of threat from China and will accordingly adopt a hedging strategy. The analysis finds that Malaysia’s perception of China is relatively friendly, and it does not perceive China as a threat, and as such Malaysia takes a hedging strategy towards China through contact with China as well as preventive actions. The goal is to maximize its own national interest and also to avoid the risk of China’s safeguarding its own interests and taking actions to damage other countries’ interests. As for the South China Sea disputes, Malaysia and China have common goals:both parties have agreed to take joint-development actions and settle the disputes through bilateral forms of consultation and consensus. On the other hand, Malaysia connects its security with the United States and other countries in order to avoid possible risks.Finally, the article switches from the microscopic analysis of Malaysia to the macroscopic perspective of the region to discuss mitigations and solutions for the South China Sea dispute. From the standpoint of bilateral and multilateral consultative mechanism, every party in the South China Sea dispute should adopt an open attitude of consultation and dialogue through an integrated approach. Taking bilateral consultations of the disputes involves two parties, but is also mainly based on the multilateral negotiation mechanism. In the multilateral terms, every party may utilize the official level of First Track diplomacy such as ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting and Sino-ASEAN cooperation mechanism, as well as unofficial level of Second Track diplomacy such as the South China Sea Workshop as a form of mutually benefiting cooperation, and they could also include external powers to join discussions and consultations in particular issues such as safety and the freedom of navigation of South China Sea. In addition, the parties should also take the way of joint-development and submit the case to the international court as a last solution to the disputes.