{"id":40849,"date":"2025-09-23T12:06:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/?p=40849"},"modified":"2025-09-29T15:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T13:07:16","slug":"chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/en\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s State Greenwashing: Masking Expansion and Environmental Destruction in the South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"40849\" class=\"elementor elementor-40849\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2397372c elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"2397372c\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-69292a46\" data-id=\"69292a46\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5e6d9de8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5e6d9de8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-no-translation=\"\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Photo: Unsplash.com<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-25a4562b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"25a4562b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-no-translation=\"\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<style>.elementor-element-25a4562b{display:none !important}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-485bc8f5 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"485bc8f5\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-897183b\" data-id=\"897183b\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-7560b960 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"7560b960\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-no-translation=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-5ba41448\" data-id=\"5ba41448\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-68ef5d09 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"68ef5d09\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2>What is happening?<\/h2><p>On September 10, the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/en\/china-establish-nature-reserve-disputed-scarborough-shoal-south-china-sea-2025-09-10\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> the creation of a nature reserve on Scarborough Shoal, located in the <strong>disputed waters of the South China Sea<\/strong> and <strong>within the Philippines\u2019 Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ<\/strong>). The reserve <a href=\"https:\/\/amti.csis.org\/chinas-nature-reserve-at-scarborough-more-than-a-decade-too-late\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">is set to cover<\/a> roughly 35 square kilometers along the shoal\u2019s northeastern side. According to the Chinese authorities, it will be divided into two areas with varying levels of protection \u2013 a so-called \u201ccore zone\u201d and an adjacent \u201cexperimental zone.\u201d By declaring such jurisdictions, the PRC seeks to legitimize its territorial expansion into overseas territories it illegally seized, despite having no entitlement to them under international law.<\/p><h2>\u00a0<\/h2><h2>What is the broader picture?<\/h2><p>Scarborough Shoal is located about 200 kilometers off the coast of the Philippine island of Luzon, in the contested waters of the South China Sea. This is where the <strong>territorial claims of several states <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amti.csis.org\/maritime-claims-map\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>collide<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 the Philippines, the PRC, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia. More than US<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/en\/china-establish-nature-reserve-disputed-scarborough-shoal-south-china-sea-2025-09-10\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>$3 trillion worth of goods<\/strong><\/a><strong> is shipped<\/strong> annually through the South China Sea. The region is also an extremely <strong>rich fishing ground<\/strong>, and beneath its seabed lie <strong>significant deposits of oil and natural gas<\/strong>. For these reasons, the South China Sea has become <strong>one of today\u2019s defining geopolitical flashpoints<\/strong>.<\/p><p>The decisive actor in the region is the PRC, which has claimed nearly the entire maritime area since the 1950s through its so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/diplomacy\/article\/3275865\/what-beijings-9-dash-line-south-china-sea-and-what-does-it-mean\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>nine-dash line<\/strong>,\u201d<\/a> thereby <strong>locking itself into territorial disputes with all other concerned neighboring states<\/strong>, including the Philippines. The PRC\u2019s claims explicitly include Scarborough Shoal, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/aerospace-defense\/what-is-scarborough-shoal-what-is-china-planning-there-2025-09-11\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it forcibly seized<\/a> in 2012, in contravention of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which states the shoal is part of the Philippine EEZ. Therefore only Manila may legitimately exercise jurisdiction there. This was consequently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=2016+ruling+south+china+sea&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>confirmed<\/strong><\/a><strong> in 2016 by the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration<\/strong> in The Hague, which invalidated PRC\u2019s claims in the South China Sea \u2013 a ruling Beijing continues to reject.<\/p><p>Ignoring international legislation and norms, the PRC has long attempted to <strong>mask its territorial expansion<\/strong> through what can be called <strong>\u201cstate greenwashing.\u201d<\/strong> Usually, term \u201cgreenwashing\u201d refers to deceptive marketing and PR practices where a company or organization falsely presents itself or its products as environmentally friendly, while concealing the actual negative impact of its business activities. In this case, <strong>it is the Chinese state<\/strong> itself that \u2013 by establishing such types of jurisdictions over effectively occupied territories \u2013 seeks to create the false impression that these areas legitimately belong to it, while portraying itself as an \u201cecological society\u201d concerned with environmental protection.<\/p><p>A bitter irony is that the PRC has systematically destroyed \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/features.csis.org\/environmental-threats-to-the-south-china-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">and continues to <strong>destroy<\/strong><\/a><strong> \u2013 the fragile ecosystems and biodiversity of the South China Sea\u2019s coral reefs<\/strong>, particularly through large-scale dredging for artificial island-building and overfishing. Beijing has also inflicted lasting <a href=\"https:\/\/amti.csis.org\/chinas-nature-reserve-at-scarborough-more-than-a-decade-too-late\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ecological damage on Scarborough Shoal<\/a> itself, where satellite imagery still reveals vast fields of \u201cscars\u201d from the extensive harvesting of giant clams. These activities have devastated the very areas which the PRC has now declared a nature reserve.<\/p><p>While the reserve at Scarborough Shoal is new in form, the PRC\u2019s strategy of state-led greenwashing is not a new phenomenon. <strong>Beijing has long linked sovereignty claims to legal frameworks of environmental protection<\/strong>. For decades, China has used conservation as a tool for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/science-environment-25359391\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">forcibly relocating Tibetans<\/a>, often through the creation and expansion of nature reserves. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.fas.usda.gov\/newgainapi\/api\/Report\/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Fishing+Ban+of+the+South+China+Sea+Lifted_Hong+Kong_Hong+Kong_08-04-1999.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unilateral fishing moratorium<\/a> in 1999 was presented as an ecological measure, yet it intruded into the disputed EEZs of neighboring states, prompting repeated formal protests from Manila and Hanoi. Similarly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/south-china-sea-blue-hole-could-be-world-s-deepest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cecological\u201d closures<\/a> around the Paracel Islands in 2016 and the establishment of large marine reserves since 1983 have served less to protect the environment than to strengthen administrative control.<\/p><h2>\u00a0<\/h2><h2>Why does it matter?<\/h2><p>These tools of so-called \u201cenvironmental governance\u201d function as instruments of lawfare within China\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/warontherocks.com\/2018\/01\/chinas-three-warfares-perspective\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cthree warfares\u201d doctrine<\/a> (legal warfare, psychological warfare, and public opinion warfare). They are designed to consolidate Beijing\u2019s territorial control and mechanisms of power projection. At the same time, they serve as camouflage to create a false appearance of legitimate jurisdiction over territories and maritime areas to which the PRC has no entitlement under international law. For the wider world, it is therefore crucial <strong>to expose these efforts, describe them in detail, and firmly reject <\/strong>any such \u201c<strong>administrative expansion<\/strong>\u201d by Beijing as illegitimate and unlawful territorial expansion.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Unsplash.com Foto: Unsplash.com What is happening? On September 10, the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) announced the creation of a nature reserve on Scarborough Shoal, located in the disputed waters of the South China Sea and within the Philippines\u2019 Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The reserve is set to cover roughly 35 square kilometers along [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[500],"tags":[552],"class_list":["post-40849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-ondrej-malek"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>China\u2019s State Greenwashing: Masking Expansion and Environmental Destruction in the South China Sea - European Values Center for Security Policy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/en\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China\u2019s State Greenwashing: Masking Expansion and Environmental Destruction in the South China Sea - European Values Center for Security Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photo: Unsplash.com Foto: Unsplash.com What is happening? 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The reserve is set to cover roughly 35 square kilometers along [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/en\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"European Values Center for Security Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-23T10:06:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T13:07:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/europeanvalues.cz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Sea_island_boat_01.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2160\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1136\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ond\u0159ej Ber\u00e1nek\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ond\u0159ej Ber\u00e1nek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ond\u0159ej Ber\u00e1nek\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7724fb271acacd215231c937a200a510\"},\"headline\":\"China\u2019s State Greenwashing: Masking Expansion and Environmental Destruction in the South China Sea\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-23T10:06:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-29T13:07:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1723,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/Sea_island_boat_01.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ond\u0159ej M\u00e1lek\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/europeanvalues.cz\\\/chinas-state-greenwashing-masking-expansion-and-environmental-destruction-in-the-south-china-sea\\\/\",\"name\":\"China\u2019s State Greenwashing: Masking Expansion and Environmental Destruction in the South China Sea - 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