The Exterior Factors Of The Issue Of The South China Sea And The Influences To The Regional Security Mechanism

Since 1970s, with the discovering of petroleum and the signing of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, some countries of the Southeast Asia began to claim the sovereignty of the South China Sea (SCS). A lot of islands, reefs and sea areas of the SCS were captured and developed by force. Conflicts between China and other countries in the region happened frequently and even wars broke out. The situation in SCS used to be turbulent and the issue of the SCS has become a main factor in threatening the peace and stability of the region. Today, the issue of the SCS has not been only a problem involved the six countries and seven parts, but a potential hotspot of the whole Asia-Pacific region even of the world. The major powers of Asia-Pacific region including the United States, Japan, India and Russia have set feet in the SCS. The ASEAN, as an international organization, has exerted an important influence on the SCS. All these factors make the already complicated issue worse and the difficulty to solve the dispute and the tendency of internationalization are enhanced. How to resolve the dispute of the SCS peacefully and prevent the tendency of internationalization has become an important problem to the subjects of international law and international relations.This thesis draws support from the relevant theories of international relations and international politics to analyze the exterior factors of the SCS, discuss the influences of theses factors to the regional security mechanism and consider how to participate in and make use of the regional security mechanism to resolve the SCS dispute by the principles of international law and the dispute settlement mechanism of peaceful settlement of the international disputes. The content of this thesis include the following four parts:The first part defines the main concepts such as the issue of the SCS, exterior factors and regional security mechanism. The second part analyzes the six exterior factors, the United States, Japan, India, Russia and ASEAN, from the aspects of reason for interfering the issue, actions they take and their SCS policies. The United States is the most important exterior factor. Japan's SCS policy follows the United States basically and pays more attention to the security of international sea-lanes in the SCS. India put forward"look-east"policy and arouses great interest in the SCS. Russia has withdrawn from Cam Ranh Bay, but still has a lot of economic interests in the area of the SCS. As the only international organization in the SCS area, ASEAN is also a political organization of the ASEAN countries which involved in the dispute of the SCS. ASEAN can not but stand with its member countries. As a result, ASEAN plays an important role in the issue of the SCS. The third part of this thesis is the influences of the exterior factors. On the one hand, the intervention of the exterior factors creates an opportunity for the countries to communicate and cooperate. It forms a kind of stability by the balance of the parties involved. The countries in the region and the exterior factors cooperate extensively in the field of security and have made fruitful achievements. On the other hand, the exterior factors bring a lot of negative influences to the regional security mechanism including: bringing a challenge to the principle of sovereignty and infringing on the countries'sovereignty of the region; setting up a lot of military allies in the SCS area, increasing the mistrust among the countries and blocking the composition of the regional security mechanism; deepening the tendency of internationalization of the dispute of the SCS and making it more complicated. The last part of the thesis analyzes the international law basis and necessity of establishing a regional security mechanism to resolve the dispute, and gives some suggestions aiming at preventing the influences of the exterior factors.