RISKS IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

US SEES RISK OF WAR OVER SOUTH CHINA SEA

Peter Hartcher

The Sydney Morning Herald, July 21, 2012

THE White House has warned of the rising risk of accidental war in the South China Sea and called for countries in the region urgently to agree to a code of conduct.

China resists such a code as it jostles for ownership of resource-rich seabeds claimed by six south-east Asian nations. But the top Asia policy official in the White House has said a recent two-month maritime standoff between China and the Philippines ''threatened to escalate'' and created ''a scenario of grave concern to all countries in the region''. The standoff ended only when a hurricane sent the Philippine vessels back to port.

Analysts say the South China Sea is the new flashpoint of Asia. Most world shipping - and Australian exports - pass through it. ''A code of conduct, in our view, is a matter of commonsense,'' the National Security Council's senior director for Asia, Danny Russell, said. In a call implicitly aimed at China, Mr Russell said 10 years ago China had agreed to negotiate such a code of conduct. It has repeatedly said it will agree to discussions ''when the time is ripe''. A Pentagon official with responsibility for US defence policy in Asia, Vikram Singh, said: ''The time is ripe now''.

China has said the US is meddling in the region's affairs by encouraging a code of conduct. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, responded: ''The US is a resident Pacific power''.

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