Interestingly, while the US has been disregarding international norms and laws in dealing with China’s sovereignty, lately Washington has positioned itself as a defender of international law. By asking China to withdraw its East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), and to withdraw from engaging in economic activity within the overlapping water between China’s Nine-Dash-Line and its maritime neighbors’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs), the US seeks to accord respect to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The US has argued for the right of freedom of navigation and flight in international water and space, as if China has violated such international norms. At the Shangri-La Dialogue this May-June in Singapore, the US Secretary of Defense has illustrated China as “destabilizing” the East and South China Seas by not respecting proper international laws.

Indeed, the idea of ADIZ may not have proper international law as its basis, but it is the US’s launch of its own ADIZ as early as in 1950 that has created the “usage” of such practices. The US has to withdraw its ADIZs before telling China what to do. It is noted that Beijing’s East China Sea ADIZ has covered the space above Diaoyu Islands, so logically, China launched its ADIZ partly as a response to Japan’s “nationalization” of these islands in 2012 and subsequent American threat to China by “defending” Japan’s illegal control of them through US-Japan bilateral arrangement rather than international law.

True, China shall respect other’s EEZ rights if they are entitled. But in joining the UNCLOS in 1982 China made proper reservation due to its historical rights in the region. Any country has a right not to accept a certain part of an international treaty, or not to accede to it at all, and China has made this clear from beginning. Therefore, China has not violated the UNCLOS for those parts that China has accepted. Why is the US, which has not ratified the same convention, entitled to tell China to observe the UNCLOS with which China has already expressed its reservation?

The UNCLOS is meant to delineate maritime economic interests among nations, but not to judge sovereign disputes at sea. It is the UN system, rather than the UNCLOS, which shall tackle those fundamental sovereign issues, such as US sales of weapons to Taiwan, American “preemption” of Iraq, as well as Hanoi and Manila’s aggression on China’s islands in the South China Sea. Notably, the US is completely silent on these matters. Washington has pointed to Moscow for the latter’s military action on Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, but it has not touched on its own aggression on Taiwan and Iraq.

America’s hypocrisy on international norm and law, though hurting Chinese, Iraqis and many others, will certainly and eventually undercut its professed interest in sustaining its global leadership on a legitimate and fair basis. It is high time for Washington to ponder over this now.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.jhzsvip.com/opinion/shendingli.htm

This article was first published at Chinausfocus.com To see the original version please visit http://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/following-international-norms-and-laws/