MARITIME ISSUES IN ASIA PACIFIC REGION

This research paper outlines and discusses the major maritime issues and potential armed conflicts in the Asia Pacific region, their implications and the outlook for regional peace and security, with particular relevance to ASEAN nations. The ASEAN nations now include Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

1. Arms Race and Growth in Chinese Naval Power

The Asia Pacific region is one of the most heavily armed regions of the world. The United States is the world's leading military superpower. China (the PRC) has had nuclear weapons since the 1960s and the largest army in the world. Japan could easily become a nuclear power and its Self-Defense forces, particularly its air force and navy, are formidable. The military presence of the Russians in the region has considerably receded since 1990, but they are a major source of high technology weaponry for the PRC. North Korea has a heavily armed standing army of over one million and is an incipient nuclear power. South Korea has strong conventional forces. Taiwan has been arming in self-defense as have the smaller ASEAN nations.

As they pursued the modernization of the Chinese economy and its opening to Western trade and technology, Chinese leaders under Deng Xiaoping and his successors reduced the size of the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) from five million men in 1980 to roughly 2.9 million today (Bracken, 1999, December, p. 41

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China is becoming a large oil importer (Calder, 1996, March/April, pp. 57-58). The Chinese (PRC and Taiwan) have claimed that all of the Spratley Islands are Chinese territory, citing historic claims dating back to the pre-1425 AD seafaring days of the Tang and Ming Dynasties. Under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC), to which China (in 1996) and most of the ASEAN nations have acceded, archipelago nations, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, may declare exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of ocean regions within 200 nautical miles of their borders. For various historical, political and economic reasons, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines have laid claims to specific EEZs adjacent to their shores. According to Dobson and Fravel, in 1997, Vietnam occupied in some fashion 21, China 8, Philippines 8, Malaysia 4 and Taiwan 1 sites in the Spratleys (1997, September, p. 258). Various incidents have occurred among these claimants. In 1974, China ejected Vietnam from the Paracel Isands where it has established an air and naval base. In 1988, the Chinese occupied six islands off the Vietnamese coast after a gun battle between Chinese and Vietnamese patrol boats in which two Vietnamese craft we
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Dobson Fravel, North Korea, China Sea, July/August China's, Asia Pacific, Caldwell Lennon, Japanese Navy, Bernstein Munro, China PRC, Chinese Vietnamese, south china, china sea, south china sea, north korea, dobson fravel, asean nations, 1999 june, dobson fravel 1997, fravel 1997, asia pacific region, pacific region, asia pacific, 1997 september, fravel 1997 september, united information agency,
Approximate Word count = 2538
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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