30 June 2015

Editorial: Why China Can't Change Course in the South China Sea

By Ankit Panda

According to China’s foreign minister, concessions in the South China Sea would embarrass China’s ancestors.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, made a particularly interesting set of remarks recently on why China cannot recalibrate its approach to the disputed South China Sea. As Diplomat readers may recall, China has steadily raised the stakes in the South China Sea by constructing man-made islands and building a range of civilian and military structures on these islands. China’s approach to the South China Sea, according to Wang, cannot be rolled back — not due to any realist considerations on Beijing’s part, but because China “would not be able to face [its] forefathers and ancestors.”

Wang made the remarks speaking specifically about China’s claims to the disputed Spratly Islands (known as the Nansha Islands in China): ”One thousand years ago China was a large sea-faring nation. So of course China was the first country to discover, use and administer the Nansha Islands,” Wang noted. ”China’s demands of sovereignty over the Nansha Islands have not expanded and neither will they shrink. Otherwise we would not be able to face our forefathers and ancestors,” he continued, particularly if “the gradual and incremental invasion of China’s sovereignty and encroachment on China’s interests” was allowed to continue.

Read the full story at The Diplomat