China's Assertive Posture in Reinforcing its Territorial and Sovereignty Claims in the South China Sea: An Insight into Malaysia's Stance

Abstract

China's growing assertiveness in strengthening its territorial and sovereignty claims in the South China Sea has arguably intensified friction and deepened tension between the rival claimant States. In sharp contrast to the strong reactions of its fellow ASEAN claimants, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia traditionally has been less critical and more inclined to downplay China's perceived emotive actions. This subtle foreign policy orientation is likely to remain unchanged in the immediate future. Malaysian leaders are aware of the need to continue adopting a more cautious but pragmatic approach to counter China's increasingly aggressive actions in the Spratly Islands. Because of the significant economic and political benefits derived from its close relationships with China, Malaysia's policy preference is aimed to avoid jeopardizing such relations. However, the growing presence of Chinese military vessels in Malaysia's waters in recent years has forced the latter to reassess its foreign policy approach, which might include adopting a more assertive stance towards China. Set against this backdrop, this article aims to give an exploratory insight into Malaysia's external behaviour and actions in response to China's recent growing aggressiveness in the South China Sea. To this end, the aim of this article is achieved through a twofold approach. First, it examines Malaysia's overlapping claims to maritime features and waters with China, with the focus on the Spratly Islands group. Lastly, the article provides an explorative insight of Malaysia's rationalist stance, particularly under the current administration of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, in response to China's aggressiveness. It also examines the motivations, intentions, and basis of this external posture.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative Progress Towards Malaysia’s Development

“…However, in more recent developments, China faces a difficult mission to gain trust predominantly from Malaysia for reasons specifically related to the changing political landscape, scandals like 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), disproportionate geopolitical and regional developments in territorial waters and China's stance on humanitarian and health issues. Moreover, it is observed that Xi Jinping has not indicated any change of policy position on the disputes in the South China Sea (Ahmad & Mohd Sani, 2017;.…”

“…Bentley (2015) also outlined measures that Malaysia should declare publicly to defend its international law. According to Ahmad and Mohd Sani (2017) (Ahmad & Mohd Sani, 2017). Alatas (2021) reiterated that Malaysia is cautious of China but does not consider her an immediate security threat.…”

Deciphering the maritime diplomatic properties of Malaysia's oil and gas explorations in the South China Sea

“…As mentioned earlier, whether Malaysia is adopting a decisive, strict, or accommodative stance vis-à-vis China in the South China Sea is still unclear. Several of the literature has also shown that Malaysia is currently taking an assertive turn to respond to China's aggressive maneuvers at sea due to the dominant deployment of navies to respond to crises (Noor, 2016;Ahmad and Sani, 2017;Wey, 2017).…”

History and Effect of South China Sea Conflict on Southeast Asia Political Stability

“…Although Taiwan is still considered an integral part of China, Taiwan also claims ownership of territory in the South China Sea (Ferhat, 2006) (Ahmad & Mohd Sani, 2017). In 1984,…”