The Indo-Pacific region benefits from an established set of rules and norms which can govern interactions between countries in the region and manage tensions between them. International law ought to constrain governments, particularly those of powerful nations, for the common good. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), however, is weaponising law to advance its expansionist geopolitical interests in the Indo-Pacific.
Chinese lawfare is being waged in the South China Sea, East China Sea and across the Taiwan Strait on a routine basis. Beijing’s approach is systematic, and looks to reap rewards as the rules of the region are rewritten. Without fighting, the PRC is attempting to take the territory of its neighbours and upend the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
This Policy Paper, written by Deniz Güzel, Associate Fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, outlines this challenge. It calls for the United Kingdom (UK) to adopt a systematic and sophisticated whole-of-government lawfare strategy able to monitor, anticipate and manage lawfare by the PRC and other hostile actors. These malign actions, it is argued, should be countered with the institutionalisation of legal resilience and vigilance, and the instrumental use of law to safeguard British interests, uphold international norms and prevent the reshaping of the legal and physical landscape.
This study from the Council on Geostrategy’s Indo-Pacific Programme will advance the understanding of Chinese activity in the Indo-Pacific region, and will be of interest to policymakers in Whitehall and key stakeholders alike.
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