Conclusion

The South China Sea maritime dispute has, in recent years, escalated in intensity, unsettling the region and disturbing external powers whose trade and oil lifelines go through it. Brendan Taylor reminds us in his chapter that the dispute is the least dangerous among Asia's present crisis points, and that a crisis in the South China Sea is by no means imminent. Nonetheless, it is a festering issue that troubles the region and the major players. As Clive Schofield observes, the states involved are ‘seemingly “adrift” on complex waters’ as the South China Sea becomes an ‘increasingly complex and contested maritime space’. Chinese maritime surveillance and enforcement agencies, as well as Chinese-flagged fishing vessels, have moved into the area to enforce or demonstrate Chinese claims, as based, officially at least, on the nine-dash line. These interventions have disrupted Malaysian, Philippine and Vietnamese oil and gas survey and exploration activities, and have given rise to a series of disturbing incidents that may, in the future, get out of hand. The ASEAN claimants, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, have undertaken these survey and exploration activities in their own EEZs, or in areas proximate to their mainland and main island coasts, which have been granted to them by UNCLOS or international law. China, however, has been increasingly prepared to enforce its claim by resorting to assertive action in what it regards as ‘Chinese waters’, while denouncing the claims of others as ‘illegal’. These Chinese actions may have far-reaching consequences for regional stability, as the ASEAN claimants, as well as external powers such as the US and Japan, are affected.