Abstract
China’s deployment of the Haiyang Shiyou-981 (HYSY-981) oil rig into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from early May to mid-July raised tensions in the South China Sea to their highest levels since the end of the Cold War and reinforced existing negative trends.
The decision to dispatch the drilling platform provides further evidence that Beijing’s policy in the South China Sea is increasingly centralized, coordinated and proactive. China’s aim appears to be to achieve dominance within the nine-dashline by incrementally advancing its sovereignty and jurisdictional claims but without provoking military conflict. In doing so it also seeks to achieve regional primacy by undermining credibility in America’s security commitments to its friends and allies.
China’s dispatch of HYSY-981 severely ruptured relations with Vietnam and called into question the efficacy of Hanoi’s policy to manage its maritime disputes with Beijing.
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