With disputes brewing in the East and South China Seas, there is another
piece of territory in Asia that could pose some serious problems...
Last month, just one week after
Barack Obama was reelected president in the U.S., the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) wrapped up its 18th Party Congress and elected a new seven member group
to its elite Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC). The PBSC is the most
important decision making body in China, and controls all essential elements of
domestic and foreign policy. The new leadership in China faces a raft of
challenges — both internal and external —which will help to determine its
relationship with the U.S., Japan, Russia, India, the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) and others in the region.
On the foreign policy front,
China continues to take a very assertive policy towards its neighbors on
territorial disputes in the South China Sea (Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan,
Malaysia, and Brunei) and the East China Sea (Japan). Moreover, China and India
continue to take issue with each other over their contested claims to the Aksai
Chin and Arunachal Pradesh (administered by Beijing and New Delhi
respectively). China has also failed to resolve a lingering dispute with the
tiny mountain kingdom of Bhutan, and maintains another lesser known dispute
with South Korea over the maritime rights over Socotra rock, a submerged rock
in the Yellow Sea that both (as well as North Korea and Taiwan) claim falls
under their exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Under international law, however,
nations cannot claim submerged rocks as part of their territory.
Although China is often
criticized for its intransigence on sovereignty disputes, it is far from the
only stubborn party to them. For instance, in a little discussed row, China and
North Korea have simmered over the jurisdiction surrounding Baekdu Mountain
(referred to as Changbai Mountain in China). The site is a sacred area for many
Koreans. Historical records point to Baekdu as the site where Korea’s first
kingdom, Gojoseon, was established. The area is also important to modern North
Korean history because the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has
glorified the site as the birthplace of its former Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il
(Soviet documents record his birth as having taken place in Russia). The
mountain is also associated with Korea’s resistance movement against Japanese
colonialism during World War II.
Baekdu, an active volcanic mountain,
straddles the border between China and North Korea. Both sides agreed to split
the land surrounding Baekdu in 1962 (some say 1963) and currently share
administration over the mountain and the lake surrounding it.
Unfortunately, this agreement —
which was signed during the Sino-Soviet dispute when Moscow and Beijing were
both courting Pyongyang’s favor — has not put an end to the matter. In recent
years Beijing has been rapidly developing the area including building an
airport and ski resort, moves that some believe are aimed at bolstering its
claims of sovereignty over the area. China stirred up further controversy in
2008 when it applied for the region to be considered a UN Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. Further
inflaming the issue, there were reports around the same time that said Beijing
was considering entering a bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics on the
contested site.
This is where the row gets
knotted. South Korea, as the self-described legitimate government of all of the
Korean Peninsula, also claims the Baekdu region and continues to insist that
China refrain from exploiting the area and building up infrastructure there. At
the 6th Winter Asian Games in Changchun, China in 2007, five South Korean ice
skaters held up a sign during their awards ceremony claiming “Mount Baekdu is
our territory.” This nationalist sentiment seems to be a recurring theme for
South Korean athletes; at the Summer Olympics in London this year, a South
Korean football player held up a sign declaring “Dokdo is our land” shortly
after his team defeated the Japanese football squad.
The 1962/3 agreement, however, is
more of a framework and does not comprehensively demarcate border lines.
Consequently, the parties continue to dispute where the border actually rests.
This matter is complicated by the fact that China and North Korea remain at
loggerheads over their far eastern border. Pyongyang maintains a strategic 17
km border with Russia along the Tumen River. DPRK's sliver of land wedged
alongside the Russia-China border effectively cuts off Beijing’s access to the
Sea of Japan. Moscow and Pyongyang have resolved their border issues and agreed
to a comprehensive border management treaty in July. This is especially crucial
as both sides continue to explore potentially laying a natural gas pipeline
from Siberia through the Korean Peninsula.
China has thus far been unwilling
to negotiate on the sovereignty of the Changbai region, and will likely
continue on this course. Beijing is happy to take advantage of the status quo
on its border with North Korea because it understands that Pyongyang has little
ability to thwart its advances. However, it will be increasingly difficult for
China to pursue this policy in light of South Korea's growing nationalism on
its territorial dispute with Japan. Moreover, the global microscope has turned
its attention to the East and South China Seas amid a year of protests,
diplomatic barbs and low-level maritime clashes. Whether it’s fair or not, Beijing’s
rivals will continue to point to its large collection of territorial disputes,
and its defiant approach on handling them, as evidence that China is not a
peaceful actor in the region.
J. Berkshire Miller
Business & Investment Opportunities
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