Toward Better Maritime Cooperation—A Proposal from the Chinese Perspective

Abstract The development of sea power theory has undergone a transformation in the contemporary context. The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, as proposed by China, is promoted as an effort to establish a cooperative development model. This approach would also seem to be consistent with the essence of modern sea power and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative. This article argues that in order to establish a viable legal cooperative framework, “hard power” cooperation and “soft power” cooperation models should be introduced, on the basis of current international treaties and customary law, and with reference to international experience.