China won’t relinquish its legitimate claim to South China Sea: Scholar

China will stand firm against US imperialism and “not relinquish what it considers its legitimate claim to the islands and atolls in the South China Sea,” says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.

The US military’s top general has called for “collective action” to stop what Washington insists is China’s militarization of the South China Sea, accusing Chinese President Xi Jinping of reneging on his promises to stop the practice.

General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday that while he was not calling for military action, international laws were needed to ensure Xi’s government would refrain from deploying weapons to islands in the sea as he promised former US President Barack Obama.

PressTV-US accuses China of broken promises on S China Sea

General Dunford says China is breaking its promises on not militarizing the South China Sea.

“In light of the Trump administration’s scuttling of the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA), withdrawal from the Paris Climate accords and other violations of international accords, it is ironic in the extreme that General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, referenced a promise that President Xi Jinping made to President Obama that they would not militarize islands in the South China Sea. US promises are not worth the paper they are printed on, yet the top US military officer accuses China of reneging on a verbal assurance that carries no legal weight and is subject to interpretation,” Etler said.

“China has long held claim to the South China Sea as an integral part of its sovereign territory. This claim predates the independence from European colonialism of the other claimants by several decades. The European powers that controlled Southeast Asia never contested China’s claim and agreements made during WW2 between the allied forces, including China, declared that Japanese conquests in the South China Sea should revert to China after Japan’s defeat,” he stated.

“At that time the Republic of China (ROC) was the internationally recognized government of China and it claimed the South China Sea as its own. The mantle of Chinese sovereignty passed from the ROC to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and it is now the internationally recognized government of the Chinese nation. The ROC retreated to the Chinese island of Taiwan and still lays claim to the whole of the South China Sea as does its inheritor the PRC. The point is that all Chinese, be they from the time of the Qing, last imperial dynasty, to the Nationalist ruled ROC or the Communist ruled PRC, recognize the South China Sea as their sovereign territory. This continuity extends back at least to the 18th century,” he said.  

“The Chinese thus have every right to do what they wish with the territory in their possession, including the building of whatever infrastructure they deem appropriate to safeguard their sovereignty and develop the region economically. Other claimants to the territory are Johnnies-come-lately who contest China’s possession of the South China Sea ex post facto. Nonetheless, they have also reclaimed, occupied and developed islands in the South China Sea claimed by China and China has not attempted to prevent them from doing so. Instead China has called for the various claimants to the South China Sea to resolve their differences without the interference of any outside parties. China and its neighbors are more than able and willing to do so,” the analyst said.

“Dunford’s statement that, ‘What is at stake in the South China Sea and elsewhere where there are territorial claims is the rule of law, international laws, norms and standards,’ is also extremely hypocritical as the US flouts the rule of law, international laws, norms and standards whenever it suits their purposes. A recent example is continued illegal occupation of the naval base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean which the UN has confirmed is the sovereign territory of Mauritius,” he said.

“As regards the militarization of the South China Sea, China has not deployed its armed forces in the region. Its territories are under civilian, not military control. It is the US that sends naval flotillas, overflights and enlists its allies to attempt to intimidate China and make the South China Sea a zone of military confrontation. China however will stand firm and not relinquish what it considers its legitimate claim to the islands and atolls in the South China Sea," he said.

"The US realizes that no ‘military response’ is possible and calls for ‘coherent collective action to those who violate international norms and standards. They need to be held accountable in some way so that future violations are deterred.’ Such action should be directed against the US not China,” he concluded.

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