The paper, written in Mandarin and translated into English by Frank Yuan, Postdoctoral Fellow at The Australia Institute, says that the often-repeated claim that China is aggressively expanding into the territory of neighbouring countries is an oversimplification of long-running tensions involving many nations, and based on misunderstandings of China's military and economic interests.
It also examines the impact of Australia joining the US on so-called Freedom of Navigation Operations close to land features controlled by China in the South China Sea.
The new research reveals that the map used by China to claim land features close to several south-east Asian nations – many hundreds of kilometres from the Chinese mainland – was drawn up by the US-aligned Chinese Nationalist Party before the People's Republic of China was founded.
While the report characterises China's military operations in the South China Sea as defensive and details multiple occasions when China has sought and achieved a peaceful solution to territorial disputes elsewhere, it also outlines how China could inflict serious damage to the US Navy if there was a military conflict between the two superpowers in the sea, including the sinking of US aircraft carriers.
"Australia sails its warships in the South China Sea to challenge China's maritime claims," said Frank Yuan, Postdoctoral Fellow at The Australia Institute.
"Yet Australian coverage of the territorial disputes rarely takes into account the perspectives of the different claimants – not least China – such as the history of China's policy, the details of its claims, and its recent diplomacy with other claimants.
"The Communist Party of China did not invent the Nine-dash Line; it merely inherited the territorial claims from the previous, US-friendly Nationalist government.
"China does not claim the whole Nine-dash Line area as its sovereign territory and does not claim the right to control all shipping in the South China Sea. It has little to gain by doing so.
"Southeast Asian countries are finding their own way to manage the disputes with Beijing peacefully. Minimising military confrontation and promoting diplomatic dialogue should be the priority for all concerned parties."
