ASEAN and the Resolution of the South China Sea Issue: Assessing Digital Limitations

Southeast Asia: Actual Problems of Development. 2026. Vol. 2. No. 2(71). P. 11–22.

Kanaev E.

 The author focuses on a strengthening digital component in the evolution of the South China Sea issue in the context of ASEAN’s evolving approach to the deepening contradictions and its policy in the digital field. On outlining ASEAN’s policy on the South China Sea issue, the author proceeds to exploring the digital agenda of ASEAN’s multilateral dialogue formats to finally turn to the emerging digital component of the issue and major attendant difficulties the association in encountering. The author argues that deepening global digital transformation has made the issue increasingly difficult to handle. The reason accounts for an overlap of its non-digital and digital aspects (the latter are presented by numerous undersea cables running through the South China Sea, AI tools that may generate social discontent, deposits of rare earth metals in that maritime area, and underwater data centers that raise the water temperature) with a negative multiplier effect. It complicates the issue and undermines ASEAN’s policy as the coordinator of Asia-Pacific multilateral dialogue venues while discussing possibilities to make it less serious. The article offers a new perspective on the challenges that the association has to take into account regarding the South China Sea issue. As its digital dimension has emerged very recently, while its influence is growing, the research has obvious relevance, academic novelty and practical significance. 

Keywords: Китай, искусственный интеллект, China, ASEAN, АСЕАН, последствия, implications, Южно-Китайское море, цифровая трансформация, редкоземельные металлы, South China Sea, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, Rare earth metals, undersea cables, undersea data centers, подводные кабели, подводные центры хранения и обработки данных