CABBAGE STRATEGY
cabbage strategy
It is also called as ‘salami-slicing’ strategy. Under this strategy, a contested area is surrounded by multiple security layers to deny access to the rival nation and is claimed subsequently. As per the observers, China, for a long time, has been pursuing this strategy, over the land and in the oceans against her neighbouring countries like India, Japan, Bhutan, the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia and Brunei as a tool to expand its frontiers.
Cabbage strategy in the South China Sea
China’s claim over islands in the South China Sea is of centuries old. However, the first official claim in the modern period dates back to 1947, wherein it demarcated its claims with a U-shaped line made up of eleven dashes on a map. In the early 1950s’, two dashes of the proposed line around the Gulf of Tonkin were removed to pacify the Communist Government in Noth Vietnam. Subsequently, the nine-dash line has emerged as the new flashpoint, which covers two groups of islands - Spratlys and Paracels – within its ambit. Beginning from 1970s’, as part of the cabbage strategy, China ensured the islands in the nine-dash line are within its control. In 2013, the largely bilateral/regional issue has assumed an international dimension when the Philippines approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration to contest the territorial claims in the nine-dash line.
In July 2016, the Hague-based PCA ruled that there was no legal basis for China to claim rights over the South China Sea. It was pointed out that China’s claims over the resources in the region are incompatible with the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) provided in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The PCA has also concluded that China has violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights and also caused severe harm to the coral reef environment by building artificial islands in the region.
However, the ruling was not accepted by China. India responded cautiously to the verdict stating that both the countries should resolve deputes through peaceful means and exercise self-restraint.
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