Inquiry to the Use of ASEAN Way: China Increase Posturing and Indonesia’s Role in South China Sea Dispute

Abstract

As the tension in South China Sea has risen, pundits and scholars quickly forgot how manageable it was once during the period after the Asian Financial Crisis until before the Global Economic Crisis of 2008. This paper will identify and elaborate the reasonof South China Sea tension to re-escalate after a decade of sustained peace while trying to assess the effectiveness of ASEAN Way in defusing the conflict and understand the role of Indonesia in South China Sea territorial dispute. The findings of this study explained what motivates China to take tougher stance in this matter. First is the internationalization of South China Sea dispute with the submission through International Court of Justice by Malaysia and Vietnam; second is the growing international power and influence China gained after the global economic crisis of 2008; third, while China’s growing naval capabilities since a decade ago has made possible for China to extend its power projection far reaching its coastline; fourth the growing interdependence of regional trade from Southeast Asian countries with China through the full establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2010; fifth, ineffectiveness of the U.S. rebalancing strategy in Asia due to its stance on South China Sea, and sixth, disunity of ASEAN to converge on a common course of action towards China’s behavior in South China Sea, this evidence also concurs how ineffectiveness of ASEAN Way to come to agreement what are the Code of Conduct should look like. Meanwhile Indonesia tried hard to push this agenda in various formal and informal meetings in East Asia, although the noise its making still cannot lured parties involved reluctantly revert back to the old balancing power game.