Malaysia’s New Game in the South China Sea

On December 12, 2019, Malaysia warmed up another round of the diplomatic row in the South China Sea (SCS) by making a new submission on an extended continental shelf (ECS) beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). It was an individual partial submission after the Vietnam-Malaysia joint submission of an ECS beyond 200 nm in 2009.

Malaysia’s move surprised regional watchers. The key question is why Malaysia undertook this measure at this time. The submission was handed over at the end of the 51st session of the CLCS. It is clear that interest in clarifying Malaysia’s claims is not the main motivation.

In the SCS region, Indonesia was the first country to submit information on the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nm in the northwest area of Sumatra Island on June 16, 2008. However, the turning point for the race for an ECS was the Vietnam-Malaysia joint submission relating to an area in the south of the SCS, which was made a couple of days before the deadline of May 13, 2009, fixed by UNCLOS and related agreements. At the same time, Vietnam also lodged a partial submission on the northeast area of the South China Sea (VN-N) to the CLCS. Both submissions dismissed the possibility of continental shelves generated by the insular features in the Spratly and Paracels.

China protested both submissions. The “nine-dash line” map attached with its diplomatic notes on May 8, 2009, is purposed to negate any existence of a continental shelf beyond 200 nm in the SCS. Also, the Chinese claim a continental shelf for all features in the center of the SCS.

(Brunei and the Philippines reserved their rights to make submissions in areas of the SCS in accordance with the requirements of Article 76 of the Convention and with the Rules of Procedure and the Scientific and Technical Guidelines of the Commission.)

The contradiction of the two approaches relating to the existence of the ECS beyond 200 nm has prevented the Commission from considering the two above-mentioned submissions since 2009. However, the Tribunal Award of July 12, 2016, over the case of the Philippines vs. China rules all features in the Spratlys are not islands in the legal sense, which generated the possibility of the existence of high seas and seabed area (considered the “common heritage of mankind”) in the center of the SCS.