Anticipating Operational Naval Warfare Issues in International Humanitarian Law That May Arise in the Event of a Conflict in the South China Sea

Abstract

On 14 March 1988, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army - Navy (PLA-N) and Vietnamese maritime units engaged in a naval battle in the vicinity of Johnson South Reef in the Spratly Islands. Whilst reports vary, between sixty-four and seventy Vietnamese soldiers and sailors were killed, eleven wounded, and two Vietnamese vessels sunk. Nine Vietnamese soldiers taken prisoner during the engagement were held by the Chinese for more than three years, being released in September 1991. One Chinese sailor was wounded. In the long and complicated history of the China-Vietnam dispute in the South China Sea, and this incident was, by any measure, a clear political punctuation mark. It was also an international armed conflict (IAC), notable from a legal perspective mainly as an example of the oft-forgotten potential for maritime IACs to be short, sharp, localised and ‘done’ in a day.