China vs. Philippines in South China Sea: The Only Thing You Need to Know

J. Michael Cole, nationalinterest.org

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Manila can sue Beijing all it wants, but in the end it seems Chinese leaders already know how they will respond. . .

Excerpt:

In just a few weeks the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague will render its verdict in a case filed by the Philippines to challenge China’s longstanding maritime claims in the South China Sea. While the result of that arbitration remains unknown, Beijing has already telegraphed how it will react should the court rule in Manila’s favor.

For months now, Chinese officials have made Beijing’s case for rejecting the tribunal’s legal authority in the matter while characterizing Manila’s gambit as “irresponsibly frivolous.”  ...

[A] ruling by an international court against Beijing would have provided more “evidence” that the West, along with its allies in East Asia, are conspiring to keep China in a state of subjugation. As Zheng Wang demonstrates in his book Never Forget National Humiliation, the victimization narrative wields a powerful influence on decisionmaking in Beijing and public support for its dogged response to the perceived affront. A survey conducted in 2013 by Andrew Chubb also shows that 83 percent of Chinese respondents regarded the South China Sea dispute as a continuation of the so-called “century of humiliation.”

Having staked its legitimacy domestically by reinforcing the meme of national humiliation and by positioning the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the sole agent capable of restoring China to its rightful place near the pinnacle of the international community, the party has painted itself into a corner and would lose immeasurable loss of credibility should it allow a biased system, let alone a regional weakling, to take away with it regards as an indivisible part of its territory. Furthermore, with the construction of artificial island bases in the region to assert its maritime claims, Beijing has heavily invested materially in the area and has no intention of dismantling those, which again would be a humiliating blow to the CCP’s image.

A worrying consequence of this national-humiliation cognitive framework is that while Beijing’s increasingly bellicose statements regarding the dispute (such as Adm. Sun Jianguo’s warning that “we do not make trouble but we have no fear of trouble”) may only be “public diplomacy,” meant to deter its potential opponents, the narrative—wed as it is to the CCP’s legitimacy and pathological insecurities—may have an effect on Beijing’s ability to de-escalate should the dispute intensify. In other words, even if it recognizes the dangers of escalatory actions, it may nevertheless feel compelled to embark on such a course of action lest its support base crumble underneath its feet.

As a regional power aspiring to near-great power status, China now also seems to believe it has obtained the “right” to ignore the strictures of international law when its national interests are perceived to be threatened, and it will not hesitate to resort to moral equivalence by reminding its detractors of the many precedents that were set by other great powers over the years, the United States chief among them. ...