CWP alum Andrew Chubb on PBS News Weekend "Why global tensions are rising in the South China Sea amid recent clashes"

Nearly a quarter of global maritime trade goes through the South China Sea. In recent years, it’s become the site of clashes between Chinese coast guard ships and Philippine vessels as Beijing tries to exert its claim to virtually the entire sea despite international law. John Yang speaks with Andrew Chubb, Asia Society fellow and senior lecturer at Lancaster University, for more.

• Andrew Chubb, Fellow, Asia Society:

  Yeah, that's right, John. Those particular reefs and sandbars that were referred to in the report have been the subject of sporadic incidents over the last six or seven years. But there's been a noticeable uptick in the activities and the confrontations.

  This year in particular, we saw last month China really going public with a sovereignty assertion with the unfurling of a flag and sort of high profile news reports laying claim to this particular sandbar Sandy Key. And the significance of that is that it lies just a couple of miles from the Philippines main military outpost in the area, which it's been doing some pretty significant upgrades at over the last few years.

  It's also very near to China as — one of China's major artificially built island outposts. So it's a sort of scene where there's a likelihood of further confrontations if this trend continues.

Andrew Chubb is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion. A graduate of the University of Western Australia, his work examines the linkages between Chinese domestic politics and international relations. More broadly, Andrew's interests include maritime and territorial disputes, strategic communication, political propaganda, and Chinese Communist Party history. Andrew is the author of Chinese Nationalism and the Gray Zone: Case Analyses of Public Opinion and PRC Foreign Policy (Naval War College Press, 2021) andthe PRC Overseas Political Activities: Risk, Reaction and the Case of Australia (Routledge and Royal United Services Institute, 2021).

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