The ASEAN-China regional Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, once adopted, could help build up trust, enhance cooperation, and reduce tensions in the Spratlys/South China Sea area. However, it is naive to expect that the adoption of the Code would serve as a safety valve to prevent the claimants from taking unilateral actions or counter-actions to bolster their respective sovereignty and jurisdictional claims in the disputed area, or speed up the process of moving toward eventual resolution.