China Doubles Down Against US Ally in Contested Waters

China continues to resist calls to remove three controversial structures that South Korean officials fear are the beginning of an unofficial expansion into disputed waters.

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Embassy in South Korea with an emailed request for comment.

Why It Matters

The structures include two floating deep-sea salmon farms and a nearby former oil rig that Beijing maintains is a “support facility” and installed without notifying Seoul. All three sit within the Provisional Measures Zone, where the South Korean and Chinese maritime zones overlap and where only fishing and navigation-related activities are permitted, per a 2000 agreement.

South Korean officials have expressed concern the platform, as a semipermanent structure, may breach the spirit of that agreement. They say it may be part of a broader “salami-slicing” effort to incrementally change the status quo in China’s favor, as seen in the country’s ongoing row with the Philippines in the South China Sea.

What To Know

Chinese officials rejected their South Korean counterparts’ request that Beijing remove the three structures, reiterating that they are intended purely for aquaculture, not territorial expansion, according to a South Korean Foreign Ministry press release.

The demand was among a range of issues discussed at the third Korea-China Maritime Cooperation Dialogue, held Wednesday in Seoul.

While Chinese officials ruled out dismantling the rig and aquaculture farms, they invited South Korea to carry out an inspection, the Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying.

A senior South Korean diplomat told reporters Thursday that Seoul must “carefully consider how to address our concerns before sending an inspection team.”

In late February, a research vessel and a South Korean coast-guard cutter were intercepted by the Chinese coast guard as they approached the platform to investigate.

During the two-hour standoff that followed, the Chinese vessels became increasingly confrontational. On multiple occasions, they cut across the bows of the Korean vessels in an attempt to block their route, according to ship-tracking data shared by Stanford University-affiliated maritime analysis group SeaLight.

What People Are Saying

Hong Liang, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, was quoted by the Korea JoongAng Daily: “The facility in question is purely for aquaculture purposes and has nothing to do with territorial sovereignty or maritime boundary delimitation [ …] We are willing to arrange for Korean officials to visit the site directly.”

Dong Gyu-lee, a research fellow at Seoul-based think tank the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told Newsweek: “In the absence of a definitive demarcation of the maritime boundary between South Korea and China, this issue is highly likely to be a perennial source of contention between the two countries.

“In light of the prevailing political divisions within South Korea, it is not inconceivable that certain politicians may seek to highlight this issue to foment anti-China sentiment in South Korea, both prior to and in the aftermath of the presidential election in June.”

What Happens Next

China and South Korea have agreed to hold a fourth Maritime Cooperation Dialogue, next time in China, and to continue communicating through all channels to ensure the issue does not impede the development of bilateral ties, according to the press statement.