US Senate bill proposes sanctions for involvement in illegal activities in South and East China seas

• The legislation reiterates America’s commitment to holding the Chinese government accountable for bullying and coercing other nations in the region
• The act would allow the seizure of US-based assets of those developing projects in areas contested by Asean members

Owen Churchill

Ships from four nations – the Philippines, US, Japan and India – sail together in the South China Sea during a training exercise on May 9. 

US senators from both political parties will reintroduce legislation on Thursday committing the government to punish Chinese individuals and entities involved in Beijing’s illegal and dangerous activities in the South and East China seas.
If it becomes law, the “South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act” would require the government to seize US-based financial assets and revoke or deny US visas of anyone engaged in “actions or policies that threaten the peace, security or stability” of areas in the South China Sea that are contested by one or more members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
“This bipartisan bill strengthens efforts by the US and our allies to counter Beijing’s illegal and dangerous militarisation of disputed territory that it has seized in the South China Sea,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican who is leading the legislation with Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin, told the South China Morning Post.
“This legislation reiterates America’s commitment to keeping the region free and open for all countries, and to holding the Chinese government accountable for bullying and coercing other nations in the region.”
The bill would require the US secretary of state to provide Congress with a report every six months identifying any Chinese person or company involved in construction or development projects in areas in the South China Sea contested by Asean members. 

Activities targeted by the bill include land reclamation, the making of islands, lighthouse construction and the building of mobile communication infrastructure.
Those who are complicit or engaged in activities that threaten the “peace, security, or stability” of those regions or areas of the East China Sea administered by Japan or the Republic of Korea would also be subject to sanctions, the bill says.

The legislation was previously introduced in 2017 but never moved from the Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate, which, along with the House of Representatives, must approve a bill before it goes to the president to be signed into law.
Those supporting the new bill are hoping for a different outcome this time, with some drawing confidence from a new Foreign Relations Committee chairman – Senator James Risch – who has made scrutiny of Beijing’s policies and practices a staple of his tenure since taking over from fellow Republican Bob Corker in January.
“We’re very optimistic, given chairman Risch’s interest in China issues,” a spokeswoman for Rubio said on Wednesday, adding that there would be no difference in language between Thursday’s version of the bill and the one introduced in 2017.
Also bolstering hopes that the legislation will progress is rising hawkishness towards Beijing among lawmakers in both houses of Congress and on both sides of the political aisle.
Across a broad range of matters, including national security, trade and intellectual property, the administration’s position on China has won support from even the most ardent critics of US President Donald Trump. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, for instance, has applauded Trump’s waging of a costly trade war with Beijing, including his escalating use of tariffs.
In a possible indicator of increased support for congressional resistance to Beijing, the current bill is co-sponsored by 13 Democratic and Republican senators, a significant increase from the two who signed on to the 2017 legislation.

Bonnie Glaser of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank in Washington, said it was “right that we now have a very harsh atmosphere in the Congress when it comes to China,” but predicted that the “obligatory, binding language” of the legislation would have to be toned down for it to make its way to the president’s desk.
“I think most administrations tend to baulk at Congress having that much say over foreign policy,” said Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia and specialist in China’s foreign and security policy at CSIS. 

“If it ever gets support within the Senate, there’ll probably have to be a compromise with the House. My guess is that it would not ultimately be passed in this form.”

Marco Rubio says the new bill will strengthen efforts to counter Beijing’s illegal and dangerous militarisation of disputed territory in the South China Sea. 

But it was “important to have this discussion and debate,” said Glaser, who noted that the South China Sea had not been on the “front burner” of the Trump administration’s policy agenda. 

“And so introducing it in Congress might not be a bad idea.”
Reintroducing the legislation had been on Rubio’s radar for about a month, said the senator’s spokeswoman, though it had become “very timely” given the US Navy’s recent “freedom of navigation operations” (FONOPs) in the region, each of which has elicited firm resistance from Beijing and, in some cases, close encounters with Chinese naval vessels.
After a US destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of the disputed Scarborough Shoal on Sunday, the second of such FONOPs in a month, Beijing said the ship’s actions had “violated China’s sovereignty and undermined the peace, security and good order in the relevant sea areas”.
The Trump administration has done a much better job at conducting regular and frequent FONOPs than previous administrations, said Glaser, adding that the US government had been successful in encouraging other stakeholders in the region to engage in joint cruises and exercises.
Earlier this month, for instance, the US conducted naval drills with India, Japan and the Philippines, a joint show of force that Glaser characterised as “unusual”, adding she was “glad to see [it]”.

The Chinese warship Linyi took part in six days of joint naval exercises with Russian vessels in the East China Sea. 

South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act

Rubio, Cardin Reintroduce Bill Targeting Chinese Aggression in South China Sea

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) today reintroduced the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act, a bipartisan bill to impose sanctions against Chinese individuals and entities that participate in Beijing’s illegitimate activities to aggressively assert its expansive maritime and territorial claims in these disputed regions. 

Co-sponsored by 14 Senators, this legislation is timely given ongoing efforts by the United States to conduct freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. 

Read more about this bipartisan legislation in the South China Morning Post.
“This bipartisan bill seeks to reinforce America’s strong and enduring commitment to securing a free and open Indo-Pacific, including in the South China Sea and East China Sea,” Rubio said. 

 “Because the Chinese Government’s ongoing and flagrant violations of international norms in the South China and East China Seas cannot go unchecked, this legislation authorizes new sanctions to put Beijing on notice that the United States means business and intends to hold violators accountable.”
“China has been bully in both the South and East China Seas, encroaching on and intimidating its neighbors. Such aggressive behavior cannot go on unchecked,” Cardin said. 

“The United States will defend the free-flow of commerce and freedom of navigation, as well as promote the peaceful diplomatic resolution of disputes consistent with international law. I am pleased to join Senator Rubio and our colleagues to send a strong bipartisan message in defense of our national interests and those of our allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region. Our legislation underscores America’s continued commitment to promote freedom and uphold the rule of law in East Asia.”

Joining Rubio and Cardin as original cosponsors of the legislation are Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rick Scott (R-FL), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), John Cornyn (R-TX), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Mitt Romney (R-UT).

Chinese Aggressions

The curious timing of US senator Marco Rubio’s South China Sea sanctions bill
By Steve Mollman

South China Sea watcher.

US senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, floated a bill that’s sure to stoke anger in Beijing. The measure would, among other things, sanction Chinese companies that engage in “illegitimate activities” in the South China Sea, such as dredging to expand the militarized islands China has built.
The timing is curious.
This also happens to be the week when Rex Tillerson, US president Donald Trump’s secretary of state, makes his first big trip to Asia on behalf of the government. 

Arguably his most important stop will be in Beijing, where he hopes to persuade Chinese leaders to take a tougher stance against North Korea. 

North Korea, which relies heavily on trade with the big rogue nation for cash, has been rattling the region with its testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. 

The US state department is reportedly considering deeper sanctions against Chinese companies that continue to do business with North Korea.
Tillerson also will have to deal with Beijing’s anger over the THAAD antimissile defense system the US is beginning to set up in South Korea. 

The idea behind the system is to stop sudden North Korean missile attacks, but Beijing fears THAAD’s advanced radar capabilities will also make its weaponry—or at least the threat of it—less potent, and thereby upset the balance of power in the region. (South Korean companies already are facing an economic backlash in China over the system.)
There’s also the issue of trade tensions between the US and China. 

During his campaign, Trump said he would declare China a currency manipulator on the first day of his administration. 

He has yet to do so, but Beijing is nervous enough that Li Keqiang emphasized this week that China does “not want to see any trade war breaking out between the two countries.”
Amid all this, Rubio chose now to introduce his bill, called the “South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act.” 

He was joined by Democratic senator Ben Cardin, showing bipartisan support for the measure.

The timing seems especially curious given that the bill is a revision of an earlier one submitted last December. 

Why is it being resurfaced just as Tillerson prepared to visit Beijing on March 18 and 19? 

Quartz reached out to Rubio’s office about the timing but did not received an immediate reply.

Busy in the South China Sea
China claims as its own nearly the entire South China Sea, despite an international tribunal ruling last July that its sweeping claim had neither a legal nor historical basis. 

Beijing dismissed the ruling and continues to fortify its position, expanding upon artificial militarized islands it’s built atop reefs in recent years.
The bill specifically mentions (pdf, p. 21) a few dozen Chinese companies that should be watched for their involvement in such activities, and sanctioned if necessary. 

Among them are China’s biggest state-owned oil companies, including China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
Tillerson has bumped heads with CNOOC in the past, during his reign as the CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil. 

In 2014, CNOOC moved a giant rig into an offshore block near the coast of Vietnam. 

ExxonMobil had received exploration rights for the block from Hanoi, but part of it falls within China’s nine-dash line, which it uses to justify its vast claims to most of the sea. 

Deadly riots against ethnic Chinese and Chinese businesses ensued in Vietnam, and after a military standoff China backed down.
Despite the uneasiness over China’s claims—which has generally scared off exploration by foreign energy giants in the resource-rich South China Sea—Tillerson helped lay the groundwork for a $10 billion natural gas project called Blue Whale off Vietnam’s central coast. 

It’s possible Tillerson might have to confront China over that or similar projects involving US energy companies in the area during his term—somewhat awkward given his Big Oil background.
Tillerson barely got the chance to have his cabinet appointment confirmed by the full US Senate. 

In mid-January, the Senate’s foreign affairs committee was in a 10-10 deadlock, along party lines. 

One Republican lawmaker was still mulling things over and held the tie-breaking committee vote to decide whether the nomination would be put up for a vote in the full Senate, where a victory was assured because of Republican dominance. 

That lawmaker was Rubio, who, despite reservations on Tillerson’s commitment to human rights, eventually cleared the way for the former CEO.
Tough questions on the way.

Critics contended that Rubio’s public skepticism of Tillerson was essentially a form of grandstanding. They might decide that, with the timing of this week’s bill introduction, he is once again seeking attention. 

Perhaps. 

But if so, the move seems less about personal posturing and more about bringing attention to the issue at hand.
Rubio’s resistance to China’s growing assertiveness at sea and authoritarianism at home is genuine. 

Last month he helped reintroduce the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” which would “renew the United States’ historical commitment to freedom and democracy in Hong Kong at a time when its autonomy is increasingly under assault.” 

Once again, his criticism (expressed through legislation) was essentially directed at Beijing.

The introduction of the act this week will create an additional awkward moment or two for Tillerson on an already awkward trip. 

Rubio, who received considerable flack for clearing Tillerson for Senate confirmation to his new role after expressing strong reservations about him, probably doesn’t mind that too much.
But more important, it conveys a message that the US hasn’t lost track of Beijing’s overreaching claims in the South China Sea, and is prepared to take action. 

Each year, $5.3 trillion of global trade passes through the vital waterway, including $1.2 trillion of US commerce. 

Last year the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned the sea could become “virtually a Chinese lake” by 2030.