The Future of the South China Sea: Disputes and Negotiations

by Jiye Kim

Overview

For over seventy years, China has steadfastly asserted its sovereignty over the South China Sea, transforming these waters into a flashpoint of international tension and a focal point of global diplomacy. The Future of the South China Sea intricately explores China’s motivations, unveiling its ambitions in the South China Sea that are anything but static. Despite the prevailing narrative that frames China’s objectives as monolithic and unchanging, its underlying interests in the region have fluctuated in both content and urgency, driven by economic imperatives, historical legacies, domestic pressures, and broader international security concerns.

By incorporating negotiation records, such as the 1958 Declaration on China’s Territorial Sea, the 1992 ASEAN Declaration, and the 2005 Tripartite Agreement, Jiye Kim traces how China reshapes its interests into negotiation agendas, providing critical insights into the nation’s diplomacy and making a significant contribution to an existing literature on the South China Sea that has been largely dominated by analyses of great power rivalry. This book sheds light on China’s underlying interests as living and adaptable entities, providing scholars with a detailed, evidence—based understanding of the complexities that define one of the world’s most contested maritime regions.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472057788
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	01/13/2026
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jiye Kim is Assistant Professor of International Security at the University of Queensland and a researcher affiliated with the University of Sydney in Australia.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
1. China’s South China Sea Diplomacy:  A Negotiation Perspective
2. History, Tradition, and Principles    
3. Evolving Underlying Interests
4. Diplomacy: Bilateral, Trilateral, and Multilateral
5. Norms and Power: Why China Joined UNCLOS
6. The Traces of Negotiations
Bibliography
Index
 

What People are Saying About This

Bates Gill

“With a fresh and nuanced analysis, Jiye Kim delves into China’s multifaceted South China Sea negotiating record to reveal Beijing’s shifting and often contradictory interests shaping its approach to this disputed waterway. This book will be of considerable interest to those following China’s relations with Southeast Asia, Beijing’s negotiating behavior, and its approach to territorial disputes.”

Daniel Druckman

“This is a massive work on Chinese diplomacy over four decades of negotiating over the South China Seas conflict. For IR and China scholars, Kim’s focus on negotiation provides a window on China’s broader strategic goals captured by the concept of indisputable sovereignty. For negotiation scholars, the analyses underscore the importance of balancing principles with pragmatism. Understanding the impacts of negotiating with multiple actors adds depth to the understanding of any of the bilateral negotiations often conducted simultaneously. This book is strongly recommended for scholars from many disciplines and policy makers from many countries.”

Xiaowen Hu

“Jiye Kim sets up an analytical framework from the perspective of diplomatic negotiation, which integrates various factors such as China's diplomatic ideas, interests, motivation and behavior, and presents the dynamic development process of China's behavior in the South China Sea. This is an innovative method and perspective that will be valuable to researchers and professionals who are interested in China's foreign policy.”

Ji You

“The Future of the South China Sea provides detailed analysis of China’s negotiation patterns vis—à—vis its South China Sea endeavors, negotiations either for sovereignty expansions that may worsen the disputes, or for dispute management to lower the level of tension with other claimants under visible constraints.”

Xian Jiaotong

“The Future of the South China Sea provides detailed analysis of China’s negotiation patterns vis-à-vis its South China Sea endeavors, negotiations either for sovereignty expansions that may worsen the disputes, or for dispute management to lower the level of tension with other claimants under visible constraints.”