Washington’s sea legs have gone wobbly because we adhere to an increasingly outdated and self-defeating view that international law binds us and our allies, not our adversaries.
China obtained mining “rights” to parts of the Clarion-Clipperton zone from a United Nations body called the International Seabed Authority (ISA). The ISA, which Beijing is reportedly corrupting with the help of baijiu parties in Jamaica, has already given China mining rights to 92,000 square miles of seabed. That is the size of the UK and more than any other country has gotten from the ISA. The ISA also gave Russia and Cuba mining rights in the Clarion-Clipperton zone.
While exploring the area, a Chinese research vessel, the Dayang Yihao, made a five-day side trip in 2021 that violated the U.S. exclusive economic zone around Hawaii. The ship almost certainly forwarded information that it got about the seabed to China’s navy. Rather than take a stand against this illegal incursion, America took it on the chin. We didn’t attempt to stop what should be considered dangerous authoritarian interlopers in U.S. maritime space.
The United States has gotten nothing from the ISA and is not a member of the organization. We need not apply because we have not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Only full UNCLOS members such as China can obtain deep-sea mining concessions from the ISA.
Yet communist China, as a dictatorship that is causing global instability, should be seen as an illegitimate state rather than a legitimate recipient of international favors.
The U.N. was founded on the principle that it would help protect democracy and human rights globally. As soon as dictators corrupt it for the opposite purpose, those dictators should be shunned and denied any U.N. benefits, such as deep sea mining concessions.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) likely uses its undersea research near Hawaii to not only grow its economy, which is bad enough given that the economy is fueling China’s war machine, but also for underwater listening stations that will help China’s navy track U.S. Navy submarines and surface combatants. China just happens to have acquired a geographically distributed mix of mining concessions across the Clarion-Clipperton that are both near Hawaii and Mexico and that likely gives it the biggest bang for its buck in terms of surveillance value and military mapping of the underwater terrain.
Beijing selectively follows UNCLOS only where it suits China and ignores it where not. For example, in the South China Sea, which is the size of India, the CCP is using its navy and air force to grab maritime territory and resources from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bhutan, despite that a U.N. arbitration panel found that Beijing is breaking international law to do so.
If China fails to follow international law in the South China Sea, why should the U.S. Navy allow Beijing and China’s commercial ships to use international law to justify their Clarion-Clipperton mining?
The CCP is using the principle of “might makes right” in the South China Sea—so why not apply the same principle to CCP efforts to mine the deep seabed, at least until the Chinese regime becomes a more peaceful and responsible member of the international community?
The United States ought to establish a rule that as long as Beijing fails to follow international law, it will not receive any of the benefits of such law, including undersea mining rights.
The United States can still impose such a reasonable international norm for the Clarion-Clipperton zone because we have a better air force and more naval might than China. But our forces will not be superior for long if we allow the Chinese regime’s economic expansion, including through its undersea mining. We need to start unapologetically containing the regime’s economic and military growth now, or it will soon be too late, and any major attempt to do so in the future would likely result in a war that we could lose.
If Beijing can deter the U.S. military, the CCP will no longer bother with appealing to international law to justify its takings, whether in the South China Sea, off Hawaii, or anywhere else. The Chinese regime will become the new global military and international legal authority.
This is the future we in America can expect if we continue to let Beijing exploit international law for its own purposes. The CCP has its roots in banditry and terrorism, starting in the 1920s in China. It has stayed true to those roots but is now the world’s most powerful mafia that knows how to exploit local and international laws and politicians to its advantage.
Whack-a-mole sanctions against particular Chinese companies or individuals that support the CCP’s aggressive behavior are insufficient. The better approach to international bullies like the CCP is systemic economic sanctions on the entire country, including higher China tariffs imposed by not just the United States but our allies.
We also need stronger U.S. military deterrence that contains the growth of the Chinese regime’s economy and stops its incrementalist military aggression. This should especially be the case on the high seas near Hawaii, where the United States still retains a clear military advantage. If America cannot even protect Hawaii, what can we protect?
