(Opinion) Who Will Be to Blame for the Next Collision Incident in the South China Sea?
2016-05-25 08:48:08 source：China-US Focus
By Liu Haiyang
May 23, 2016
"On May 18, 2016, the Pentagon released a statement accusing China of conducting 'unsafe' interception of a US reconnaissance plane in 'international airspace' over the South China Sea. China's Ministry of National Defense responded by stating that incident 'is probably about the close-in reconnaissance by U.S. military aircraft against China.'
This incident immediately reminds me of the 2001 EP-3 collision incident between China and U.S., also in the South China Sea, which led to the death of one Chinese pilot and the deterioration of bilateral relations. The militarization of the South China Sea, accelerated by recent U.S. military build-up in the Asia-Pacific, as well as the U.S. Freedom of Navigation operations, increases the risk of yet another deadly collision incident. The danger of another such incident raises the question about whether the existing international law could serve as the rule of the road to regulate the conducts of relevant parties. If the answer is no, then does China and the U.S. need to negotiate an Incident at Sea (INCSEA) Agreement to curtail such dangerous encounters?"
NISCSS does not necessarily share in or endorse the opinions of off-site commentators.