Martel: Ignoring China’s South China Sea Invasion Emboldened Russia to Attack Ukraine

Russia alarmed the world on Sunday by reportedly seizing Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov, attacking Ukrainian assets and blocking some of its most important port cities through its illegal command of the Crimean peninsula.

The standoff had become inevitable since Russia built a bridge blocking off the entire Sea of Azov across the Kerch Strait, connecting Crimea to legitimate Russian territory and blocking Ukraine off from the world. The international community neutralized its ability to respond to the ongoing maritime crisis long ago, however, thousands of miles away – in the South China Sea, where the Chinese military has been illegally seizing territory, ramming ships, and arresting fishermen with impunity. 

Since the ruling, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping proclaimed China, not the international legal system, the “keeper of the international order.” The Sea of Azov dispute proves that Russia, for one, has accepted its new leader, leaving the burden on the international community to assert its authority or surrender to Russia and, in turn, legitimize China.

While Russian officials only hint of believing Moscow has sovereignty over all of Ukraine, China has long insisted that most of the South China Sea – including territory belonging to the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia – has been inherently part of China “since ancient times.” China has been staking its maritime claim for the past three years in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague ruled China’s activity in the region illegal in 2016; China replied by ignoring the ruling.