US Navy and the South China Sea

Bruce A. Elleman is William V. Pratt Professor of International History at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, USA

• Acronym ListList of FiguresIntroduction: Evaluating the South China Sea’s Maritime Challenges1) The Early Chinese and European Influence on a Divided Vietnam2) The Sino-Soviet Alliance and its 1960 Split3) The U.S. Enters the Vietnam War, 1960-19694) Using the Vietnam War to Start a Sino-Soviet War, 19695) President Richard Nixon Opens Diplomatic Relations with the PRC, 1969-19726) The PLAN Invasion of the Paracels, 19747) The Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 and the End of the Sino-Soviet Monolith8) Sino-U.S. Cooperation against Vietnam and the USSR and the End of the Cold WarConclusions: The Possible Formation of a U.S.-Vietnamese anti-Chinese AllianceTimelineDocument 1: Sino-French Tonkin Treaty, 26 June 1887Document 2: Cairo Declaration, 1 December 1943Document 3: Potsdam Proclamation, 26 July 1945Document 4: Treaty of Peace with Japan, 8 September 1951Document 5: Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan, 28 April 1952Document 6: U.S.-ROC Mutual Defense Treaty, 2 December 1954 (ratified 1955) plus Secret ProtocolDocument 7: Formosa Resolution, 1955Document 8: Declaration on China’s Territorial Sea, 4 September 1958Document 9: Prime Minister Pham Van Dong’s Letter, 14 September 1958Document 10: Shanghai Communiqué, 28 February 1972Document 11: Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America, 16 December 1978Document 12: Taiwan Relations Act, 10 April 1979Document 13: Joint Communiqué on the Question of Arms Sales to Taiwan, 17 August 1982Document 14: Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, 25 February 1992Document 15: 1992 ASEAN Declaration on the South China Sea, 22 July 1992Document 16: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, PART V, Exclusive Economic Zone, In force since 14 November 1994Document 17: A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress regarding missile tests and military exercises by the People's Republic of China, 21 March 1996.Document 18: Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf of the PRC, 26 June 1998Document 19: 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, 4 November 2002Document 20: Anti-Secession Law adopted by NPC, 14 March 2005Document 21: Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, 29 June 2010Document 22: In the Matter of the South China Sea Arbitration, 12 July 2016Selected BibliographyBiography