China and US urged not to let South China Sea disputes overshadow ocean governance efforts
- An event in China’s Hainan province heard that the two must lead the way on international efforts to tackle problems such as piracy and climate change
- China and a number of other countries in the region are embroiled in a series of long-running territorial disputes in the resource-rich waters
An event held on the Chinese island of Hainan earlier this month heard that progress will not be possible without cooperation between the two superpowers, who were urged not to let regional maritime disputes overshadow efforts to address issues such as piracy, climate change and other environmental threats.
“Ocean governance … cannot be done without cooperation between China and the US,” Da Wei, an international relations professor at Tsinghua University, told the Symposium on Global Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance.
“Issues related to ocean governance have been over-securitised in US-China relations. When we talk about the oceans, it is all about security or sovereignty issues, which will lead to a difficult situation for problem-solving.”
Da suggested that China and the US could look to previous examples of cooperation, such as efforts to fight climate change or tackling the Ebola outbreak in Africa almost 10 years ago, when trying to lead the way.
