P olicy B rief

For the Chinese authorities, and even more so since 2012 and Xi Jinping’s rise to power as head of the Communist Party and then of the State and the Central Military Commission, it is all about implementing a strategy of revenge, the Chinese dream of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” This dream is also expressed through irredentist claims to a maritime space, the control of which als. [...] For reasons An extensive interpretation of UNCLOS of prestige linked to the legitimization of the Communist Party, China is also trying to impose China signed the United Nations Convention a return to a highly fantasized notion of imperial on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982 and rule of all “under the sky,” based on a tributary ratified it in 1996, two years after the Convention system that wou. [...] It was this reservation of Tianxia ( 天 下 ) has seen a resurgence of clause that allowed the PRC to deny the interest in China since the 2000s.3 Reflecting legitimacy of the Hague Arbitral Tribunal when this hierarchical view of the world with China at the Philippines presented a case against China its center, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told the regarding the South China Sea in 2013 and to ASEAN. [...] 3 Juane 2 19,, 202148 Policy Brief spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign The 1992 Law on the Territorial Sea and the Affairs said about the Taiwan Strait: “There is Contiguous Zone no such thing as international waters in the Law The law promulgated by the National of the Sea; the countries concerned claim that People’s Congress on February 25, 1992, is the the waters of the Strait are inte. [...] China has challenged the universally accepted principle of international waters in the Taiwan The Maritime Traffic Safety Law of 2021 Strait (see above), paving the way for a potential Stepping up the pressure tactics used by multiplication of incidents with foreign civilian the PRC to enforce its territorial claims in the or military vessels.