Author: Peter Dutton

Peter Dutton is Professor of Strategic Studies and Director of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College. He is also Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and an Affiliated Distinguished Scholar at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute there. Professor Dutton's current research focuses on American and Chinese views of sovereignty and international law of the sea and the strategic implications to the United States and the United States Navy of Chinese international law and policy choices. All opinions expressed are his personal views and not meant to represent the views of the US government.

China’s Claims are Unambiguously Ambiguous

By Peter Dutton | June 16, 2015 | Categories: China, International Law, Land Reclamation, South China Sea

In the first paragraph of his recent AMTI article, Zheng Zhihua essentially conflates two issues–questions of sovereignty over islands and questions of jurisdiction over resources and the boundaries delimiting them–when he says: A few international observers also accuse China of deliberately obscuring its territorial claims in the South China Sea by using terms not found […]