China's Behavior and Ambitions to Become a Norm-maker in the South China Sea Dispute

Abstract:The rising tensions in the South China Sea (SCS) have mainly been affected by China's growing confidence in its ability to challenge and redefine norms that constitute the regional structure. In parallel to its continued rise, China faces inevitable pressure to either accept prevailing international norms or, if it challenges existing norms, to provide an alternative source of legitimacy for its behavior. The purpose of this article is therefore to examine China's selection process when it comes to challenging certain norms. The main argument pursued in this article states that from the Chinese perspective, when challenging norms, it is not primarily the content of the challenged norm that matters but the likelihood of successfully shaping a new norm and thus becoming the effective norm-maker in the region.