The result of the arbitration case that the Philippines took to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, over its South China Sea dispute with China has been released. Although Taiwan favors respecting international law, it cannot accept the part of the judgement that says its territory of Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island 太平島) is not an island.
According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), land formations that can maintain human habitation or other forms of economic activity are defined as islands. Another unjust aspect of this case is that the Republic of China was not invited to take part in the arbitration procedure, and the tribunal never sought the nation’s opinion.
It is clear that the tribunal was selective in the way it collected evidence and made its judgement, and that political motives were involved.
Taiwan is dispatching a frigate to conduct patrols in the South China Sea to express its determination to protect its territory.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) boarded the frigate to inspect the fleet command and boost the morale of the officers and sailors, a move supported by the ruling and opposition parties.
China has said it would neither participate in or accept arbitration nor recognize or honor the ruling, and it held large-scale military exercises before its announcement. The measures diminished the authority of the ruling, while further complicating the South China Sea issue. Under such circumstances, the ruling does not end the dispute. Rather, it marks the start of another round of sparring.
Apart from conducting patrols to demonstrate the nation’s sovereignty, the government should invest more resources into conducting research on Itu Aba and putting the island to peaceful use. That would be another way of declaring sovereignty. It would raise the public’s awareness of the South China Sea issue and be a way of accumulating evidence of the nation’s ownership of the island.
Apart from looking for ways to make the court and the international community understand Taiwan’s standpoints and demands, the government should also show the Philippines what it is doing with Itu Aba, while protesting the claim that it is not an island.
However, there are many aspects to foreign relations and each issue should be handled separately. Considering Taiwan’s proximity to the Philippines, Taipei should not overlook the task of developing close relations with that nation.
The Philippines has close relations with the US, is a member of ASEAN and occupies a strategic position. It covers an area of 299,764km2 — about 8.3 times the size of Taiwan — and its population has reached 100 million. Taiwan is the Philippines’ sixth-biggest trading partner, while the Philippines is Taiwan’s 14th. It only takes one hour and 20 minutes to fly from Kaohsiung to the Philippines’ Subic Bay and two hours from Taipei to Manila. Clearly, the Philippines is an important staging post in Taiwan’s “new southbound policy.”
There are no eternal allies or perpetual enemies in diplomacy. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has made many gestures of goodwill to Beijing and said he is willing to sit down and talk with China.
He has even proposed setting up joint-venture companies to share the resources of the South China Sea. In light of this, the two nations could patch up their disagreements.
Protests have to be made, but Taiwan must know where to draw the line. It needs to be clear about what its core interests are and not get its priorities mixed up.
Yan Jiann-fa is a professor of business administration at Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology.>
Translated by Julian Clegg
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US