The United States and China in Power Transition - Strategic Studies ...

U.S. aircraft carrier group making military exercises in
the Yellow Sea and its occasional transit of the Taiwan
Strait. 90
China argues that the UN Convention on the Law
of the Sea (UNCLOS) has established the 200 nautical
miles (nm) EEZ between the territorial waters and the
high seas as a special area different from either and
governed by its own rules (see Appendix I, Article 55
and Article 86). China also holds that freedom of navigation
and over-flight in the EEZ have certain restrictions,
namely, the activities must be peaceful and nonthreatening
to the coastal nations. China charges that
U.S. military surveillance ships and reconnaissance
flights in the Chinese-claimed EEZ have hostile intent
against China and therefore do not fall in the scope of
peaceful and innocent passage. China has repeatedly
asked the United States to reduce this activity and
eventually put a stop to it. 91
The United States categorically rejects China’s
claims, arguing that China misinterprets the UNCLOS
at best, but more pointedly stretches the interpretation
intentionally to stage this confrontation with the
United States at worst. The United States holds that
the UNCLOS sanctions on foreign military activities
are only for the 12-nm territorial waters, but not the
EEZ (see the underlined phrase in the UNCLOS in
Appendix I, Article 19). The United States also argues
that China’s reservation to the UNCLOS on foreign
military activities in the EEZ does not enjoy broad
support from the other signatory parties. Indeed, of
the 161 nations ratifying the treaty, only 14 reserve the
right to require approval for foreign military activities
in their claimed EEZs. China’s position therefore is an
exception rather than the rule. 92 Robert Scher, Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific
Security Affairs, puts it straightforwardly:
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