Current Fishing Dispute in the South China Sea: A Vietnamese Perspective

The South China Sea is one of the world’s security hotspots regarding territorial sovereignty disputes between China, Taiwan and some South-east Asian countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Currently, the dispute situation in the South China Sea is increasingly complicated and tends to be more stressful because the region’s situation is not only heated up by territorial sovereignty disputes, geostrategic competition among great powers, but also heated up by various non-traditional security issues, including fisheries security issues such as overfishing, illegal fishing activities, conflicts over fisheries activities between countries. However, at present, there are no effective cooperative and rational mechanisms for fisheries in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, ASEAN is an important mechanism for managing regional security issues, including non-traditional security in the South China Sea. However, ASEAN’s role in this region is still relatively weak. Given that situation, the article analyses the current situation of fisheries security issue in the South China Sea and clarifies how ASEAN’s role in this sector plays out in the current period. What actions should ASEAN take to contribute to ensuring non-traditional security in the South China Sea in general and fisheries security in particular?