Australia should not undertake freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) in the South China Sea

AUSTRALIA-CHINA RELATIONS | Former prime minister Tony Abbott has called for Australia to participate in freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) in the South China Sea. The United States routinely sails ships (and flies planes) within 12 nautical miles of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea to remind China that it derives no sovereign authority from its illegal island-building, a position backed up by the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration Ruling under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (to which China is a party). But China insists that its "nine dash line" demonstrates full sovereignty over the area. This is an important issue, but it's too big a fight for Australia to take on. Australia should focus on human rights issues (like the Chinese repression of Uighur Muslims in Northwest China's Xinjiang region and the repression of civil liberties in Hong Kong), not try to get involved in Asian military affairs.

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