Australia joins US in declaring Beijing’s South China Sea claims illegal
Australia has just dramatically raised the stakes in its worsening relationship with China in a major development at the UN.
Australia has dramatically raised the stakes in its worsening relationship with China, swinging in behind the United States to formally declare disputed Chinese claims in the South China Sea to be illegal.
In a declaration filed at the United Nations in New York, Australia said it rejected China’s maritime claims around contested islands and features in the South China Sea as being inconsistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and therefore “invalid”.
The move comes just days ahead of high-level AUSMIN talks between Australia and the US in Washington, and follows the United States’ abandonment of its position of neutrality on Beijing’s South China Seas claims.
Australia has previously urged all claimants to disputed South China Sea islands and maritime features to resolve their claims in accordance with international law.
But the new declaration, filed at the UN by Australia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mitch Fifield on Friday Australian time, repudiates China’s claims, noting protests by Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
“The Australian Government rejects any claims by China that are inconsistent with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in particular, maritime claims that do not adhere to its rules on baselines, maritime zones and classification of features.,” it says.
“There is no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of maritime features or ‘island groups’ in the South China Sea, including around the ‘Four Sha’ or ‘continental’ or ‘outlying’ archipelagos.
Read Australia’s full UN submission here.
“Australia rejects any claims to internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf based on such straight baselines.”
The declaration says Australia also rejects China’s claims to submerged features and its artificial islands, noting “land building activities” cannot change the classification of a feature under UNCLOS.
“There is no legal basis for a maritime feature to generate maritime entitlements beyond those generated under UNCLOS by that feature in its natural state,” it says.
The statement specifically rejects China’s claims that the Spratly Islands — where Australian warships were warned off this week by China’s navy — and the Paracel Islands, are “widely recognised by the international community”.
The move will infuriate Beijing, which has threatened Australia with trade sanctions and consumer boycotts over its increasingly hard line diplomatic stance on China.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s disputed claims in the South China Sea, and warned Beijing posed an “unprecedented threat” to the region.
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Mr Pompeo said.
Senators Payne and Reynolds will meet with Mr Pompeo and US Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Tuesday night Australian time for this year;s AUSMIN talks.
Writing in The Weekend Australian, the ministers have blasted Beijing’s “coercive conduct” in the South China Sea and its human rights violations in Hong Kong, and suggested the communist regime is threatening the internet.
New agreements will be signed at the meeting to tackle state-sponsored disinformation and support Indo-Pacific nations to combat infections diseases.
A new infrastructure-focused development program to support regional economic recovery is also expected, together with agreements to step up military co-operation and the development of defence technologies, and strengthen supply chains for essential goods, including critical minerals and medical supplies.
Senators Payne and Reynolds say the meeting is being held at a “pivotal moment”, with the coronavirus pandemic exacerbating the most difficult set of strategic challenges the Indo-Pacific has seen for generations.
“Never has it been more important that we, as allies, sit down together and find every possible way to advance our shared interests,” they write. “Sweeping and vague ‘national security’ legislation imposed on Hong Kong has undermined the rights, freedoms and futures of millions of people.
“Coercive actions in the South China Sea, such as the escalation of disputes and militarisation of disputed features, continue to create tension that destabilise the region. Cyber attacks are on the rise, while authoritarian governments imperil hopes for an open, interoperable, reliable and secure internet.”
In a video address on Friday, Scott Morrison said the Australia-US relationship had never been stronger or more important, and declared Australia always pulled its weight in the partnership.
“We are a trusted partner of the United States. We trust each other,” he told the United States Studies Centre. “And as I said to President Trump last year when we met, Australia looks to the US, sure. But we don’t leave it to the US. We do our share of heavy lifting in this partnership.”
However, the Prime Minister has also sought to differentiate Australia’s approach to China from that of the US, saying Australia will take “our own actions and our own initiatives”.
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