ABSTRACT
The issue of the South China Sea and China’s aggressive approach in the Nine Dash Line (NDL) region needs to be seen in the larger context. Beijing’s growing desire to become a ‘global power’, a ‘maritime power’, in addition to realising ‘China’s Dream’ have shown up in several of its leaders’ speeches and statements over the past few decades. The previous chapter showed that over the 19th and 20th centuries, China faced weakened maritime borders while it focussed on strengthening its territorial borders. However, the end of the 20th century brought significant changes in the global order as well China’s improving domestic system. The diametrically opposite positions of both presented an opportunity for China to ‘rise’ and also look towards its maritime backyard as an important building block in achieving this objective. The maritime waters encircling the country are both an economic opportunity as well as a security challenge (the chapter discussing economics in the SCS describes this in detail). Added to this equation of its economic empowerment and desire to become a global maritime power, is the new-found confidence to participate in, and even revise, the existing global regimes.
