How can China, Japan, and the United States cooperate to provide public goods in the East Asia maritime domain and diffuse tensions and build trust among their governments? There are several areas where multinational cooperation is necessary to promote shared goals and where states’ overlapping strategic interests are not involved. There are also areas where tension seems out of proportion to the likely gains of any state and should be diffused.

The Carnegie-Tsinghua Center and the Institute for Asia Pacific Studies held a conference on maritime issues in East Asia. Albert Shimkus of the U.S. Naval War College, Hiroko Maeda of Japan’s PHP Institute, Wang Duanyong of Shanghai International Studies University, Christine Parthemore of the Center for a New American Security, Li Mingjiang of Nanyang Technical University, and other experts in the field discussed maritime development and policy coordination among the regional powers. Patrick Cronin of the Center for a New American Security moderated.

Potential Avenues of Cooperation

Cooperation is essential to promoting regional security and to building positive relationships among countries. Participants identified areas where cooperation should be productive and feasible.

  • Medical Cooperation: There is great potential for collaboration and cooperation in health care delivery systems in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, because all regional powers have an interest in promoting a stable environment and no country has the capacity to address issue alone, agreed participants. Shimkus proposed a multilateral effort based on a sovereign country’s request for assistance that would involve joint training and delivery of medical aid. Such a program would build trust between the assisting countries in addition to supporting the beneficiary country.
     
  • Non-Traditional Security Threats: Transnational non-traditional security threats require multilateral cooperation, and national interests are aligned in this area, added participants. One participant cited Prime Minister Koizumi’s multilateral cooperation program to combat piracy as a potential model, stating that incidents of piracy in Southeast Asia have decreased since 2006. China and the United States have also cooperated battling piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
     
  • Technology and Scientific Research: The energy resources in the South China Sea will require deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling to extract. The Deepwater Horizon disaster illustrates the danger of such drilling, and the United States should share its technological and regulatory experiences and lessons with other countries to avoid future catastrophic failures. The United States should also cooperate with other countries on oceanographic research on the course of climate change that could be used to bolster coastal infrastructure and adapt to changes, added another participant. Such research is essential and less politically contentious than security cooperation.

Diffusing Tensions

Participants also identified several areas where the predominating competitive dynamic could be moderated.

  • Halt Futile Energy Competition: Parthemore stated that the actual capacity of the energy reserves in the region is insufficient to justify destabilizing energy competition. Based on the current reserve-to-production ratio, BP estimates that proven reserves will run out in 14.4 years, and even the most optimistic data sets predict 20-30 years. Furthermore, tar-sands and deepwater oil exploration are the most expensive forms of oil production, and Exxon predicts that relatively soon oil drilling in the region will not be cost-effective relative to types of renewable energy. She emphasized that other trends related to climate change—collapsing fisheries, destruction of agricultural land, and displacement of people—will have a much greater effect on the economies and populations in the region.
     
  • Increase Transparency: Participants from the United States, Singapore, and Japan expressed concern that China was ambiguous concerning what rights it claims over the waters within the 9-dash line. Li argued that the only claim that accords with history and international law is a claim of sovereignty over the islands within the line and rights governed by United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over the waters. He argued that China should formally clarify its claim to prove its peaceful intentions and create room for joint development and piece-by-piece resolution. Maeda added that China should promote maritime stability and multilateral dialogue by explaining its maritime goals, renouncing settlement by force, and increasing transparency concerning its naval build-up.