SINGAPORE — America's protest last week to China over the alleged harassment of two of its navy ships by Chinese vessels, and China's reaffirmation of ownership of the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, highlight two festering maritime disputes. Either position could lead to conflict in the region unless it is carefully managed.
The tiff between Washington and Beijing resurrects a long-standing disagreement over the rights of coastal states in Exclusive Economic Zones that extend for 200 nautical miles from their shores, and the procedures to be followed by foreign military ships and planes when using EEZ waters and airspace.
The United States says its unarmed ocean surveillance ship Impeccable was about 120 km south of China's Hainan Island last Sunday towing sonars, when it was forced to leave the area after Chinese vessels engaged in "dangerous maneuvers" nearby. The Pentagon says another U.S. surveillance ship had been harassed days earlier in the Yellow Sea, 200 km from China's coast.