Territory - South China Sea

Law of the Sea - South China Sea

The officious bystanders now seem all too eager to enter the fray over the South China Sea as two senior US senators wrote to Dai Bingguo on the South China Sea, claiming that "[i]f appropriate steps are not taken to calm the situation, future incidents could escalate, jeopardising the vital national interests of the United States.” Meanwhile, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman declared that "the issue of the South China Sea is a matter of common interest for the international community". Freedom of navigation has been invoked as the excuse for the US involvement, as China and the US continued to spar over the rights of foreign states in China's EEZ.