SCS conflict is due to ambiguity—but neither side is willing to escalate
Guzman 23- reporter for TIME based in Singapore.
Chad De Guzman, "China Says It Doesn’t Want Conflict. Its Actions at Sea Suggest Otherwise," Time, 6-6-2023, https://time.com/6285005/china-us-taiwan-sea-territory-dispute/-- 嘉玮
Collin Koh, a regional security analyst from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, says the U.N. treaty hasn’t explicitly stated any limits on foreign military activities in those maritime regions, and this ambiguity is a “key crux” of the conflict between China and the U.S. in the waterway. “China will prefer a restrictive interpretation according to its rights as a coastal state, whereas the U.S. being the user state, will want to interpret it more broadly, that associates broader global interests,” Koh says.
Still, a full-scale conflict emerging from China’s moves is unlikely, says Koh. “I don’t think both the U.S. and China enter the room with eyes closed,” he says. “Both sides will have rhetoric, but it seems like they stop at that.”