Japan\u2019s note is the latest in series<\/a><\/span> of recent criticisms<\/a><\/span> of China\u2019s position, joining submissions to the U.N. from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and the United States.<\/p>\n This backlash suggests that China\u2019s excessive claims and its assertive behavior are setting off alarm bells in in a growing number of capitals\u2014both in Southeast Asia and beyond.<\/p>\n \u201cBy joining the United States and several European and Asian nations in formally protesting China’s claims, Japan is joining a diplomatic (and maybe operational) effort to reject specific elements of China’s South China Sea claims,\u201d said Isaac Kardon, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College.<\/p>\n In its submission, Japan explicitly rejects China\u2019s claim that the \u201cdrawing of territorial sea baselines by China on relevant islands and reefs in the South China Sea conforms to UNCLOS and general international law.\u201d<\/p>\n The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea<\/a><\/span> is an international treaty that covers maritime jurisdictions, the use of sea resources, and the freedom of navigation and overflight. Baselines are imaginary lines on a map connecting the outermost points of the features of an archipelago and are meant to circumscribe the territory that belongs to it.<\/p>\n Deeper Southeast Asia ties<\/strong><\/p>\n Although Japan is not among the claimants in the South China Sea, this is not its first foray into those turbulent waters.<\/p>\n Japan has deepened security ties with several of the Southeast Asian claimant nations in recent years, and in October 2020 carried out anti-submarine exercises<\/a><\/span> in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n Japanese companies have signed onto joint offshore energy projects<\/a><\/span> with Vietnam, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga recently set a defense export<\/a><\/span> agreement with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.<\/p>\n Similarly, the Philippines has acquired coast guard vessels<\/a><\/span> and radar systems<\/a><\/span> from Japan. And Japanese vessels have participated<\/a><\/span> in exercises in the South China Sea with forces from the United States and the Philippines.<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s decision to challenge China\u2019s position in the South China Sea is also likely related to its dispute with China over the Japanese-occupied Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.<\/p>\n \u201cThe timing of the note is crucial,\u201d Pooja Bhatt, a PhD candidate at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said, \u201cas it was released a few hours prior to a reportedly high-level consultation on maritime issues between China and Japan where the latter lodged a diplomatic protest over increasing Chinese belligerence near the Senkaku Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n More broadly, Bhatt said Japan\u2019s action reflected a trend of non-claimant states that \u201cseek safety and freedom of trade and navigation\u201d and hope to \u201cuphold the rule of law and internationally accepted norms in the high seas of the South China Sea just like any other global commons.\u201d<\/p>\n Because \u201cthe waters of the South China Sea beyond the territorial sea are high seas that impact global peace and security,\u201d Bhatt explained, claimant and non-claimant states \u201care increasingly vocal to register their concern through diplomatic notes to the United Nations at the multilateral level.\u201d<\/p>\n At odds with UNCLOS<\/strong><\/p>\n For example, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom submitted<\/a><\/span> joint notes to the United Nations in September 2020. They contended that China\u2019s baseline claims and historic rights claims were inconsistent with UNCLOS.<\/p>\n China claims straight baselines around the Paracel Islands, an area in the northern South China Sea disputed by Vietnam, China, and Taiwan. Assessments of these claims have long concluded<\/a><\/span> that China\u2019s baselines in the Paracels are at odds with<\/a><\/span> UNCLOS requirements. China has not yet claimed baselines around the Spratly Islands, the site of overlapping claims between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, and Malaysia.<\/p>\n In July 2016, an UNCLOS tribunal ruled<\/a><\/span> that China \u201cis constituted principally by territory on the mainland of Asia and cannot meet the definition of an archipelagic State,\u201d which means that any future straight baseline claims around the Spratly Islands will not find any support under international law. The arbitral award also invalidated<\/a><\/span> China\u2019s historic rights claims within its so-called \u201cnine-dash line.\u201d<\/p>\n The UNCLOS tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued this arbitral award in response to a legal challenge brought against China in 2013 by the Philippines. China refused<\/a><\/span> to participate in the arbitration, rejected<\/a><\/span> the PCA\u2019s ruling, and has continued to defend<\/a><\/span> its baseline claims.<\/p>\n In the years since the UNCLOS tribunal ruling, the legal battle over China\u2019s South China Sea claims has continued. According to Kardon, Japan\u2019s recent note to the U.N. is part of \u201ca series of such diplomatic notes that began with Malaysia’s December 2019 submission of extended continental shelf claims to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n China responded<\/a><\/span> by asking the Commission to \u201cnot consider\u201d Malaysia\u2019s submission<\/a><\/span>. \u201cThis provided another target for claimants and other interested parties to voice formal objections to specific aspects of China’s claims,\u201d Kardon said.<\/p>\n![\"japan-scs.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/japan-southchinasea-01222021155503.html\/japan-scs.jpg\/@@images\/ba2991ec-6c29-46e7-93b4-ba40603ca640.jpeg\" "\\"japan-scs.jpg\\"")
Japanese Ground Home Defence Forces Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) maneouver along the beach of a Philippine navy training center facing the South China Sea in annual U.S.-Philippine marines exercises. San Antonio town, Zambales province, Oct. 6, 2018.<\/p>\n