[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 45 (Friday, March 10, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E577-E578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               PEACE AND STABILITY IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 10, 1995
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce House Resolution 
--. This resolution is designed to focus attention on peace and 
stability in the South China Sea which is a matter of strategic 
national security interest to the United States, its friends, and 
allies.
  Twenty-five percent of the world's ocean freight and 70 percent of 
Japan's vital energy supplies transit the South China Sea, an area 
larger than Western Europe. The South China Sea serves as the vital 
conduit for U.S. Navy ships passing from the Pacific to the Indian 
Ocean and the Persian Gulf. It is of crucial importance to the defense 
needs of the United States. Without question, if our Navy ships should 
be denied free passage during a time of emergency, particularly a flare 
up in the Middle East, our ability to expeditiously come to the aid of 
our allies, including Israel, would be in doubt.
  For hundreds of years the countries around the South China Sea's rim 
have allowed free passage for all nations who wanted to ship their 
goods through it. Now, however, the scramble for marine resources and 
oil has led to the assertion of rival claims to parts or all of the 
islands and reefs compromising the area. In 1992 the countries of the 
Association of South East Asian Nations [ASEAN] as well as Communist 
China and Vietnam pledged in Manila to renounce the use
 of force to settle boundary disputes. Indonesia has sponsored a series 
of workshops on claims in the South China Sea but there has been little 
progress, primarily because of Beijing's intransigence.

  In 1992 the People's Republic of China [PRC] rubber stamp legislature 
passed a statute asserting its claim to all of the South China Sea and 
declaring it to be territorial waters. Particularly ominous, the same 
statute declares that ``Foreign ships [transiting the area] for 
military purposes shall be subject to approval.'' Given the PRC's 
longstanding military relations with terrorist countries of the Middle 
East, its approval for a United States Navy carrier group to come to 
aid of our friends in the Persian gulf or Israel is subject to doubt. 
Yes, it is possible for our Navy to go the long way around Pearl Harbor 
to the Persian Gulf, but time becomes critical in moments of crisis.
  Little by little the leaders in Beijing have been turning the South 
China Sea into their own lake. Some scholars, most notably Ambassador 
James Lilly, have been pointing out that it is not in our national 
security interest to allow a nondemocratic power to deny us freedom of 
passage. However, the Clinton administration appears to be absent 
without leave on the strategic issue of the South China Sea.
  My resolution contains three principal provisions: First, it declares 
the right of free passage to be in the national security interests of 
the United States. Second, it declares any attempt by a nondemocratic 
power to assert its territorial claims by force or intimidation to be 
of grave concern to us. Finally, it calls on the President to review 
the defense needs of democratic claimants.
  Permit me to address this last point a little more in depth. We are 
engaged with this issue, at this time, principally because last month 
Chinese military forces kidnapped Filipino citizens and planted the PRC 
flag on territory claimed by the Philippines.
  The Philippines' claim is fully in accord with the Law of the Sea 
Convention. Clearly Beijing chose the Philippines because they thought 
that since our relations with that nation are at a low point and so 
they could get away with it. The Philippines' five aging F-5 aircraft 
are no match for China's Russian warplanes and their new blue-water 
navy. In order to avoid a future confrontation that we might lose, we 
had better shore up the defenses of our democratic friends and allies 
in the region. Otherwise, China will continue to use force and 
intimidation to gain exclusive control of the South China Sea.
  [[Page E578]] Accordingly, I ask that the full text of House 
Resolution -- be printed in the Record at this point and I invite my 
colleagues to cosponsor it.
                                H.R. --

       Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
     the United States should support peace and stability in the 
     South China Sea.
       Whereas the South China Sea is a critically important 
     waterway through which 25 percent of the world's ocean 
     freight and 70 percent of Japan's energy supplies transit;
       Whereas the South China Sea serves as a crucial sea lane 
     for United States Navy ships moving between the Pacific and 
     Indian Oceans, particularly in time of emergency;
       Whereas there are a number of competing claims to territory 
     in the South China Sea;
       Whereas the 1992 Manila Declaration adhered to by the 
     Association of South East Asian Nations, the Socialist 
     Republic of Vietnam, and the People's Republic of China calls 
     for all claimants to territory in the South China Sea to 
     resolve questions of boundaries through peaceful 
     negotiations;
       Whereas the legislature of the People's Republic of China 
     has declared the entire South China Sea to be Chinese 
     territorial waters;
       Whereas the armed forces of the People's Republic of China 
     have asserted China's claim to the South China Sea through 
     the kidnapping of citizens of the Republic of the Philippines 
     and the construction of military bases on territory claimed 
     by the Philippines; and
       Whereas the acts of aggression committed by the armed 
     forces of the People's Republic of China against citizens of 
     the Philippines are contrary to both international law and to 
     peace and stability in East Asia: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
       (1) declares the right of free passage through the South 
     China Sea to be in the national security interests of the 
     United States, its friends, and allies;
       (2) declares that any attempt by a nondemocratic power to 
     assert, through the use of force of intimidation, its claims 
     to territory in the South China Sea to be a matter of grave 
     concern to the United States;
       (3) calls upon the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China to adhere faithfully to its commitment under the Manila 
     Declaration of 1992; and
       (4) calls upon the President of the United States to review 
     the defense needs of democratic countries with claims to 
     territory in the South China Sea.
     

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