Europe and China’s sea disputes: between normative politics, power balancing and acquiescence

ABSTRACT

China’s disputes with its South East Asian neighbours and Japan in the South and East China Seas have emerged as important tests of the implications of China’s rise, posing dilemmas not just for regional states but also for other global actors, including European states and the European Union (EU). European responses to these disputes have pulled in three directions: a normative approach emphasising the resolution of disputes within the framework of international law; a power balancing approach, led by France and the United Kingdom, involving support for freedom of navigation operations and strengthened bilateral and EU ties with other Asian states; and de facto acquiescence to Chinese advances in the region. In terms of understanding EU foreign policy, this case suggests a sequence: a normative approach as the initial default EU policy; a turn to power balancing when the effectiveness of that policy is called into question, but also the possibility of acquiescence and consequent divisions amongst EU member states. Europe faces dilemmas in balancing support for the United States, Japan and the South-East Asian states with its strategic partnership with China, but in practice European policy is much closer to that of the former group than that of Beijing.

KEYWORDS:

• European foreign policy
• EU foreign policy
• China
• South China Sea
• East China Sea
• normative power

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank participants in the workshop ‘US-China-Europe Triangular Relations: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe’, Goethe University Frankfurt, 1–3 November 2018 and European Security’s anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Andrew Cottey is Senior Lecturer and Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Integration, Department of Government and Politics, University College Cork. He has been a NATO Research Fellow, a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and a Visiting Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and is a member of the governing board of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC). His publications include Security in twenty-first Century Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition 2013), Understanding Chinese Politics: An Introduction to Government in the People’s Republic of China (with Neil Collins, Manchester University Press, 2012) and Reshaping Defence Diplomacy: New Roles for Military Cooperation and Assistance (with Anthony Forster, Oxford University Press/IISS, 2004).

ORCID

Andrew Cottey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2199-1240