mrswdk wrote:waauw wrote:mrswdk wrote:Your quote touches on to the exact reason why the US quoting UNCLOS is hypocritical:
In 1982, President Reagan announced he would not sign UNCLOS due to “several major problems” on the rules for deep seabed mining.
Those 'several major problems' are that signing UNCLOS would
require US companies to conform to regulations which they are in violation of at present. The US doesn't like this and doesn't want to comply, and so refuses to sign UNCLOS.
UNCLOS is not something the US genuinely cares about, it is just a convenient stick with which to beat China.
But they did uphold other points like right of passage and they did so for a very good reason.
The US can't pick and choose which parts of the law it likes and which parts of the law it wants to ignore.
A. It's a treaty, not a law.
B. Non-signed treaties that are followed are called 'policies'. So yes they can pick and choose.
mrswdk wrote:As Riskllama correctly pointed out, if you start denying access to certain countries, those countries will react. China is the country who made the first move in this whole south-china sea situation and should not be surprised that it encounters hostility and adversity towards it. China provoked the whole situations itself.
lol. I'm pretty sure llama was making a whole other point entirely, but to address the underlined:
1 - China only denies military access to its claimed territorial waters. Sea traffic is still free to pass through
2 - One of the pressing issues here is quite why it is any of the US's business to 'react' to a territorial dispute in SE Asia
1. So those Vietnamese fishermen ships were what? Military vessels? Not to mention the bigger issue here is that ALL SHIPS have the right to pass through INTERNATIONAL WATERS. Elevated pieces of underwater archipelago's and artificial islands don't count as real islands. If the US were to build an artificial island at the tip of the Malacca straight, would that make the surrounding waters american? Of course not, and the same thing applies to China's fake islands.
2. The US is allowed to demand passage through international waters, not to mention the us has strong military ties with several nations in the region. Countries like Thailand and Indonesia are strengthening their ties with Washington. The Philippines even has a Mutual Protection Pact with the US, making them official allies. Even Vietnam is now interested in american military cooperation.
It's China's own aggressive foreign policy that's chasing SE-asian nations into american arms. Do you honestly think the Vietnamese, who hate the americans, would ever desire closer relations to Washington if it weren't for China?