However the Philippines chooses to account for the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese crewman on board the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 by the Philippine Coast Guard last week, it will not be able to explain away the purposeful nature of the shooting.
In 1995, when the Philippines began expelling Chinese fishing boats operating in its territorial waters in the South China Sea, its policy was to detain their crews. Later on, as the sheer number of Chinese fishing boats it had to contend with made this impracticable, it took to ramming the boats, a practice which resulted in the sinking of two ships and the deaths of several Chinese fishermen.
Last year, when the Philippines and China had a standoff over Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), the Philippines reverted back to expulsion and detention. Over this extended process, a Philippine vessel opened fire on a Chinese boat on only two occasions, once in 1999 and then again in 2001, and there were no reported injuries in either case.
By contrast, the Philippine Coast Guard often opens fire on or detains Taiwanese fishermen operating in the waters around the Bashi Channel, irrespective of whether they have crossed the maritime boundary line, and in many cases fishermen have been injured. Clearly, the Philippines has a different policy on dealing with fishing boats operating in what it claims to be its maritime waters, depending on whether they come from China or Taiwan. This is a very serious matter.
There are two reasons for this rather barbaric treatment of Taiwanese fishermen at the hands of the Philippines. First, because the Philippine government feels that Taiwan is weak and will not retaliate. Second, because arresting Taiwanese fishermen can be very lucrative: In the past, Taiwanese fishermen have been willing to hand over huge fines to secure their release. Had the crew of the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 been detained last week, they would likely have had to pay a fine. Instead, the Philippine ship opened fire to intimidate the crew, with tragic results. The Taiwanese government has to take all this into account and deliver a strong response to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.
It has been reported that Philippine naval authorities have said that the vessel in question only opened fire on the Taiwanese fishing boat when it entered Philippine territorial waters and then attempted to ram the Philippine ship. Make of that what you will, but the important thing is that all of the Philippine announcements of the definitions of its archipelagic waters — issued in 1961, 1978 and 2009 — unilaterally extended 200 nautical miles (370km) from the outlying islands.
It must be understood that the Philippines has never officially declared the exclusive economic zones between it and Taiwan, or the continental shelf boundary line it has unilaterally designated. The submission the Philippines presented to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2009 referred only to the continental shelf boundary east of Luzon. The submission did not mention anything about the continental shelf boundary line to the north of the island. Therefore, the Philippine argument that the Taiwanese fishing boat had crossed into its territorial waters does not hold any weight. Manila should provide Taipei with the charts showing the official exclusive economic zone north of Luzon.
It is also worth noting that according to the Treaty of Paris signed in 1898 to end the Spanish-American War, Batanes islands do not actually belong to the Philippines, as the Spanish did not cede these islands to the US. For all these years, the waters around the Batanes archipelago and the Babuyan islands have been traditional Taiwanese fishing grounds, and according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Philippines, as an archipelagic state, must recognize traditional fishing rights of other states within their archipelagic waters when they are designating maritime boundaries.
There is no getting around the fact that there is going to be an overlap in the exclusive economic waters of the Philippines and Taiwan, and that the issue of Taiwanese fishing rights in their traditional fishing grounds around the Batanes archipelago and the Babuyan islands needs to be resolved through talks between the two countries.
However, since Taipei and Manila cut diplomatic ties, the Philippines has consistently used the fact that no diplomatic relations exist as an excuse to refuse to sit down to talks. If Manila insists on maintaining the exclusive economic waters that it has announced as its official protected fishing grounds, it stands to reason that Taipei can adopt a similar approach.
If Philippine President Benigno Aquino III insists on respecting the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and wants to refer South China Sea disputes for arbitration to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, he should take a leaf from Japan’s book, and open talks with Taiwan to settle maritime issues.
Should the Philippines fail to come up with a response to this unfortunate affair that demonstrates sufficient goodwill on its part, the Taiwanese government needs to consider whether it should refer this dispute over fishing rights, caused by overlapping maritime zones, to the international tribunal for arbitration.
Chen Hurng-yu is a professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of Asian Studies.
Translated by Paul Cooper
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan in late February. During their various meetings with Taiwan’s leaders, this delegation never missed an opportunity to emphasize the strength of their cross-party consensus on issues relating to Taiwan and China. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi are leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Their instruction upon taking the reins of the committee was to preserve China issues as a last bastion of bipartisanship in an otherwise deeply divided Washington. They have largely upheld their pledge. But in doing so, they have performed the
It is well known that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) ambition is to rejuvenate the Chinese nation by unification of Taiwan, either peacefully or by force. The peaceful option has virtually gone out of the window with the last presidential elections in Taiwan. Taiwanese, especially the youth, are resolved not to be part of China. With time, this resolve has grown politically stronger. It leaves China with reunification by force as the default option. Everyone tells me how and when mighty China would invade and overpower tiny Taiwan. However, I have rarely been told that Taiwan could be defended to
It should have been Maestro’s night. It is hard to envision a film more Oscar-friendly than Bradley Cooper’s exploration of the life and loves of famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. It was a prestige biopic, a longtime route to acting trophies and more (see Darkest Hour, Lincoln, and Milk). The film was a music biopic, a subgenre with an even richer history of award-winning films such as Ray, Walk the Line and Bohemian Rhapsody. What is more, it was the passion project of cowriter, producer, director and actor Bradley Cooper. That is the kind of multitasking -for-his-art overachievement that Oscar
Chinese villages are being built in the disputed zone between Bhutan and China. Last month, Chinese settlers, holding photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), moved into their new homes on land that was not Xi’s to give. These residents are part of the Chinese government’s resettlement program, relocating Tibetan families into the territory China claims. China shares land borders with 15 countries and sea borders with eight, and is involved in many disputes. Land disputes include the ones with Bhutan (Doklam plateau), India (Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin) and Nepal (near Dolakha and Solukhumbu districts). Maritime disputes in the South China