Sea incident shows rising tensions

The difference this time is that no one was killed and no one taken hostage. Also, both countries are eager not to allow the incident in the South China Sea to escalate at a time when the U.S. and China wish to cooperate in tackling the global financial crisis.

The incident is another reflection of tension between a rising China and today's hegemon, the United States. It also reflects fundamental differences on international law.

In 2001, the United States insisted that its intelligence-gathering plane was flying over international waters. This time, it asserts that its surveillance ship was sailing in the same international waters.

China, however, declares that these are the waters of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and that the United States needed Chinese permission before undertaking such activities.

Both countries appeal to international law, which in this case is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, concluded in 1982.

The convention gave coastal states a 12-mile territorial sea as well as a 200-mile EEZ within which the coastal state has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources.

Article 58 of the convention declares that, within its EEZ, the coastal state has “sovereignty rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil... and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone.”

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