ABSTRACT
China’s move to sea power has elevated the strategic significance of the South China Sea, which has become the major axis of China’s geopolitical expansion in the Western Pacific. Expansion by stealth requires a particular diplomatic culture, which is able to persuade others of a country’s best intentions while carefully concealing its motives. China’s claim to the South China Sea area has become an issue of nationalism and the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party. China’s official claim to the South China Sea has been based on the nine-dash line and the notion of “historical rights”, neither of which meet the accepted criteria for a legal claim in international law. Chinese officials and scholars regularly invoke “historical rights” to the South China Sea and proclaim that the area was “ancient” Chinese territory. The belief that China would negotiate a resolution of the dispute with some kind of compromise persists among some China watchers.
