Law of the Sea Ruling Reveals Dangerous Chinese Nationalism

Huy Duong

South China Sea, Asia-Pacific

Most Chinese analysis only repeats the official narrative and further fans the flames of nationalism.

The recent ruling by a United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Arbitration Tribunal of the on a case brought by the Philippines against China has been welcomed by many governments that are concerned about rising tensions in the South China Sea. However, within China it has provoked outpourings of defiance.

As expected, the Chinese government reasserted its staunch position of non-recognition of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction and non-acceptance of the ruling. Its military started new war games and announced air patrols in the South China Sea. An admiral warned the US that its freedom of navigation operations could  “play out disastrously”, while another one vowed that China will never stop halfway its controversial construction on the Spratly reefs, adding that “The Chinese navy is prepared to react to any infringement of rights or aggression” . "The People's Liberation Army is ready," one source with ties to the Chinese military told Reuters. "We should go in and give them a bloody nose like Deng Xiaoping did to Vietnam in 1979." 

As if not to be outdone in patriotic fervour, China National Nuclear Corporation announced that it would build nuclear power stations in the South China Sea, explaining that “[m]arine nuclear power platform construction will be used to support China’s effective control in the South China Sea.”

Reportedly,

WeChat and the microblogs used daily by the majority of Chinese people have been flooded with two pictures. One is a letter which calls on veterans to enroll in the army again, with the similar comment, “if there is a war, I will be back to the front upon the call.” The other picture is a map of Chinese territory which marks out the nine-dash line, with the caption that “This is Chinese territory, not an inch of it can be lost.”