hankyoreh

former Foreign Minister

By Song Min-soon, former Foreign Minister

In March 2008, Admiral Tim Keating, then commander of US Pacific Command, made a statement before the United States House Committee on Armed Services that foreshadowed one aspect of the struggle between the US and China for hegemony. Keating recalled how a high-ranking member of the Chinese military had proposed splitting the Pacific into two halves at Hawaii, with the US overseeing the east half and China the west. While Keating said that this had been spoken in jest, he had viewed it as being significant enough to include in his testimony before the committee.

Fast forward four years to Feb. 2012, when Xi Jinping was still vice president of China. In an interview with the Washington Post, Xi observed, “the vast Pacific Ocean has ample space for China and the United States.”

This hints at the hope that China will be able to jointly oversee the Pacific Ocean with the US. The spirit behind the off-the-record remarks by the Chinese military official is translated here into diplomatic language.

In April 2001, a Chinese jet compelled an American reconnaissance aircraft flying off the coast of Hainan Island in the South China Sea to land. This effectively put a stop to the long-standing American practice of carrying out reconnaissance on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, running from the West (Yellow) Sea off the Korean peninsula, down along the East China Sea and through the Strait of Taiwan to the South China Sea.

The incident ended with the US issuing an apology and the reconnaissance aircraft being disassembled and returned. Since then, the US and China have maintained the status quo in the western Pacific Ocean by doing their best not to provoke each other militarily.

Even after the Hainan incident, China did not announce an air defense identification zone. But on Nov. 23, it did announce such a zone in the East China Sea. For now, this appears to be a response to indications that Japan is expanding and increasing the role of its military. Japan has justified these actions by citing the conflict over the Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu Islands in China) and the right to collective self-defense in relation to its alliance with the US in the event of a crisis on the Korean peninsula.

China has responded in various ways to the Western-dominated world order that followed World War II: with acceptance, reserve, or rejection according to the circumstances. Once China achieved a certain level in terms of its nuclear and economic power, it began to participate in the global consensus on economic stability and global security, joining the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) while refusing to adopt political and social values related to democracy and human rights. On the other hand, China declined to take a stance on the regional order created by the US after World War II, including the air defense identification zones in the western Pacific in the air space of South Korea and Japan.

Then suddenly, and without any prior notification, China announced an air defense identification zone in waters that include Ieo Island, a reef that belongs to South Korea. China has the right to declare its own air defense identification zone, just as other countries do. However, it is a basic principle of international relations that when there is an overlap with another country’s existing zone, a discussion should take place and an agreement should be reached in advance. Whatever the reasons for the action, it was sufficient to revive talk about the Chinese threat.

China’s action is being seen as a call for change in the existing order in the western Pacific, which the US has effectively maintained as its own waters for the past 70 years. The US has gone back and forth between unilateralism and multilateralism as it has maintained the post- World War II order. It has made unilateral decisions when it was able to deal with something on its own, and it has acted multilaterally when circumstances compelled it to. While this American policy has functioned as a pillar supporting the world order, it has also provoked conflict.

Now China also appears to be following the same pattern. When both the US and China pursue their own unilateralism, it is inevitable that there will be conflict in various parts of the Western Pacific. And South Korea is on the front lines.

The air defense identification zone system is not recognized under international law. This is a system that will have to be created in the future. The issue of air defense identification zones in the East China Sea is not something that should be resolved on bilaterally between the US and China or China and Japan. And it is unlikely that that would even happen.

South Korea is a key stakeholder in the East China Sea, which is the location of Ieo Island, and should pursue four-way talks that would add the US to the existing discussion group of South Korea, China, and Japan. The four parties could gather on Jeju Island, the largest island in the East China Sea, to take part in a forum for setting up a cooperative order in the western Pacific that would prevent the current situation from getting worse.

It does not lead to the peace of the regional community or South Korea’s national interest for South Korea to either serve as a balancing factor in the relationship between the US and China or to take the lead in the alliance between the US and Japan by standing on the front line against China. Serving as a facilitator to create a harmonious order in the region is appropriate for South Korea to do, and it is also something that South Korea can do. There is no other country that can fulfill this role.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]