The Impacts of the South China Sea Disputes between Vietnam and China on the Vietnamese Government’s Perspectives on Joining the Belt Road Initiative

The international nexus of security and economic cooperation is a complicated issue especially between countries that are in asymmetric positions like Vietnam and the People Republic of China (China). Living next to a giant neighbor has been creating Vietnam both challenges and opportunities in the past two thousand years since the first independent state form of Vietnam was established. The challenge for Vietnam is how to successfully perform its political maneuvering to get the most benefits from economic cooperation and at the same time not to damper its ideological independence and sovereignty. This thesis looks into two aspects acting as two separated, but also mutual- affected case studies, the South China Sea disputes (security) and the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) (economic cooperation). By qualitative analysis, I wanted to give a thought on how a small and weak country (Vietnam) can manage in the challenging situation when putting the economic benefits and the territorial rights (from Vietnam’s point of view) on the same scale. The thesis concludes that Vietnam has faced a greater challenge in joining the BRI and the actual implementation of the BRI in Vietnam has been still very slow. The Vietnamese government is willing to support the BRI as long as they can get benefits from the BRI, while not dampening its political motivation and persistence with their agenda on the South China Sea. Vietnam is therefore hedging its position towards the PRC

Eu-china negotiations on investor state dispute settlement within the cai framework: are we on the right track?

This paper begins by presenting some of the main assessments of this controversial EU-China “agreement in principle”, and also weighs up the text’s chances of coming into force. The fact that, according to scholars, the bidirectional FDI flows between the EU and the PRC are still underdeveloped does not seem to be a good enough reason for all EU institutions to endorse its CAI approval on a political level. Section III reflects on the possible reasons why the Comprehensive Agreement, despite its name, did not cover an issue as essential as ISDS from the outset, instead relegating it to later negotiations between the two parties. Seven very diverse hypotheses are addressed by this paper on the above referred absence (ranging from a mere question of time to problematic unilateral strategies, and including bilateral decisions reached on the basis of various possible grounds). Section IV reflects on the possible content of the EU-China Agreement on Investment Dispute Settlement. A very wide range of possibilities opens up again at this point (a permanent standing two-tier mechanism with full-time adjudicators; a multilateral permanent appellate mechanism; a Sino-European mechanism for settling investment disputes; an Asia-centred dispute settlement mechanism linked to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; existing Chinese-led arbitration mechanisms, and the enhancement of other ADR mechanisms). Section V deals with the fact that the BITs that China has signed with almost all EU countries in recent decades are applicable to the claims that Chinese and EU investors could raise before the entry into force of the EU-China IDS Agreement. This section also explains the negative consequences of this supposedly transitory situation and makes a case for completing the IDS negotiations promptly and effectively

Investment Dispute Settlement Mechanism in the Context of the Belt and Road Initiative

The Belt and Road Initiative has the potential to update current investment dispute settlement mechanism established by China and its partner countries. According to the practical contexts of the Belt and Road region, this article evaluates the trade-offs associated with existing, emerging, and proposed investment dispute settlement mechanisms, including informal means, domestic courts, interstate investment dispute settlement mechanisms, ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement), regional investment court and international tribunal review. The article emphasizes that no single investment settlement mechanism is sufficient to resolve all disputes related to the Belt and Road Initiative and the complementarity among different mechanisms is necessary. The platform and special nature of the Belt and Road Initiative are able to support both the improvement of the current mechanisms and the establishment of the newly proposed mechanisms. Keywords: Investment Dispute Settlement, Belt and Road Initiative DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/81-04 Publication date: November 30th 202

On Diplomatic Innovation and Discourse Power of China in Building An Ocean Power

The new ideas, policies and initiatives on diplomacy, i.e. the diplomatic innovation, put forward by China after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 are totally compliance with the development trends of the era and the implementation of China's strategic goal of becoming an ocean power, so we should adhere to this direction that such new diplomatic ideas, policies and initiatives are adopted to guide China's progress of becoming an ocean power and deal with major marine disputes with other countries. From the perspective of the progress of strategic goal of building an ocean power, China shall push forward and implement such plan phrase by phrase and step by step. Therefore, in theory, we shall use thoughts contained in documents such as China's Policies on Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation as guidelines to resolve major marine disputes so as to establish China's status as a regional ocean power and a worldwide ocean power. In practice, China has adopted new diplomatic ideas, policies and initiatives to instruct the resolution of marine issues and achieved good performance. However, because there are different opinions and views on China's policies on and attitudes towards marine disputes resolution, it is still important and hard task for China to further expound its marine policies and positions through diplomatic channels, which is an issue of discourse power. That is to say, it is still a hard task for China to realize its goal of law-based governance of the sea during its progress of accelerating its pace in building an ocean power. It needs many means and continued efforts including diplomatic behaviors to reasonably maintain ocean order, ensure China's marine rights and interests, let China obtain the status as an ocean power, and have a say in establishing marine systems

The Establishment of “Belt and Road” International Investment Disputes Settlement Institution

In the context of the growth of regional international investment disputes (IIDs) caused by the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, having a third-party settlement will play an important role in IIDs. Currently, the B&R countries have mostly selected ICSID as the IIDs settlement institution in their Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), which makes cases where a B&R country is respondent to be handled by nationals of countries outside the B&R area. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a B&R IIDs Settlement Institution, for the purpose of optimizing the current situation of IIDs settlement in the B&R region, dealing with the constantly-increasing regional IIDs, better protecting geographical investments, and facilitating China to participate in and further guide the reconstruction of international investment regulations. Moreover, the feasibilities in law, platform and resources for its establishment have been available. With respect to the path option, we should take the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank as a platform to draft a convention, take the ICSID Convention as a reference for structure and system innovation, and devote great efforts to driving B&R countries to conclude the convention

Seeing beyond negotiations: the impacts of the Belt and Road on Sino-Kazakh transboundary water management

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and infrastructural development has led to growing concerns regarding the future of Central Asia’s water resources. However, few attempts have been made to assess the impacts this will have on specific transboundary basins within the region. This article explores how the context of the BRI transcends its physical impacts within the Ili and Irtysh basins, creating a sanctioned discourse that forecloses the possibility of ‘successful’ negotiations at an official level. As such, pathways to transboundary water management that exist beyond the negotiations are shown to have greater plausibility and potential effectiveness.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

UNSETTLED DISPUTES IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA: DETERMINING THE LACK OF COOPERATION AMONG CLAIMANT COUNTRIES IN CHALLENGING CHINA

Since the latter half of the twentieth century, China’s conduct in territorial disputes within the nine-dash line (9DL) has received international criticism. After the landmark arbitral ruling in 2016 denounced China’s historical claims to maritime rights within the 9DL and ruled China’s actions in Philippine waters as unlawful, it became evidently clear to the international community that China had been overstepping the bounds of the United Nations Conventions on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS). Prior incidents with Japan and Vietnam had already portrayed China as provocative. If left unchecked, continued Chinese provocation in the South China Sea could threaten countries’ sovereign maritime rights in the region. This possibility poses an important question: Why have countries in Southeast Asia not more publicly and prominently cooperated with one another and the United States to balance against China’s claims in the South China Sea? This thesis argues that claimant countries have not taken a collaborative approach to challenging China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea due to three factors: heightened tensions in the South China Sea as a result of the U.S.-China rivalry, China’s economic influence on claimant countries’ decision-making, and the presence of a collective action dilemma among ASEAN to challenge China.Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

New Paths and Policies towards Conflict Prevention

"This book explores the discourse on conflict prevention and peacebuilding by bringing together researchers from China and Switzerland over a series policy dialogues. The Charter of the United Nations, adopted in the immediate aftermath of World War II, is clear about the fundamental necessity for the international community to act in partnership to prevent violent conflict. Given recent shifts in global power dynamics, there is an apparent need for international policy issues to be addressed in ways that are inclusive of a wider variety of perspectives and approaches. Chinese policy actors are increasingly interested in fostering their own discourse on issues of prevention and peacebuilding, rooted in Chinese experience, and engaging with peers from other contexts. The chapters in this volume explore the rationale for conflict prevention and review prevailing academic and practitioner discourses on fundamental questions such as the rationales for why conflicts should be prevented and whether ‘mainstream approaches’ are still relevant. This book will be of interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, Chinese politics, and International Relations.

European energy security reimagined: mapping the risks, challenges and opportunities of changing energy geographies

Following the Paris Agreement, the energy landscape is changing more than ever. While these changes bring opportunity, they also come with risks, requiring traditional concepts of energy security to be reconsidered. These changes in the energy landscape are mirrored by shifting political balances as the world becomes increasingly multipolar, raising questions of which rules will govern energy systems, trade, markets and investment. As geopolitical turmoil comes closer to the EU’s borders, energy systems are becoming increasingly cross-border and regional in nature, intertwining interest in energy security. Cross-border initiatives in energy are proliferating across Eurasia, driven in part by the rise of China, with the potential to create new energy regions, corridors and geographies. These developments can lead to new geographies along infrastructure lines and could result in competitive regionalism and regulatory fault lines. This paper reflects an initial step to identify potential risks emerging in this new energy landscape and assess the ability of existing institutions and tools of governance to address them. The study aims to describe the risk landscape and governance shortcomings and identify actions the EU can take to both improve its existing external energy governance and empower existing institutions to address these risks. Ultimately, for the EU and Germany, the challenge will be to turn the potential risks of connectivity into opportunities and to help establish a level playing field that ensures competitiveness through common rules. (author's abstract