The Philippines has taken China to a UN tribunal to challenge its claim to most of the South China Sea, including territory belonging to the archipelago, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario said yesterday.
Del Rosario told reporters that Manila had referred Beijing to an arbitration panel under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) — a 1982 treaty signed by both countries — and would ask it to declare Chinese claims in the area invalid.
“The Philippines has exhausted almost all political and diplomatic avenues for a peaceful negotiated settlement of its maritime dispute with China,” he said.
Photo: EPA
“On numerous occasions, dating back to 1995, the Philippines has been exchanging views with China to peacefully settle these disputes. To this day, a solution is still elusive,” Del Rosario added. “We hope that the arbitral proceedings shall bring this dispute to a durable solution.”
China’s territorial claims overlap those of the Philippines, as well as Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Over the past two years the Philippines and Vietnam have complained about China’s increasing assertiveness in enforcing those claims, particularly around areas believed rich in oil and natural gas reserves.
Manila says the Chinese stance led to a standoff last year with the Philippines over rich fishing grounds around the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), a formation much closer to the Philippine coast than to China’s shores.
The Philippines in its submission says Beijing’s so-called “nine-dash line” outlining its territorial claims over most of the sea, including waters and islands close to its neighbors, is illegal, according to Del Rosario.
It also demands that China “desist from unlawful activities that violate the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the Philippines under the 1982 UNCLOS,” he added.
A briefing paper provided by the Philippine foreign department alleged that within the nine-dash line, “China has also laid claim to, occupied and built structures on certain submerged banks, reefs and low-tide elevations that do not qualify as islands under UNCLOS, but are parts of the Philippine continental shelf, or the international seabed.”
China swiftly dismissed the submission, with Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Ma Keqing (馬克卿) repeating her country’s stance to an official in the Philippines’ foreign office.
“Ambassador Ma reiterated the principled position of the Chinese side, and stressed that China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in [the] South China Sea and its adjacent waters,” a Chinese embassy statement said.
“The Chinese side strongly holds [that] the disputes on [the] South China Sea should be settled by parties concerned through negotiations,” it added.
UNCLOS generally requires both parties to undergo arbitration and it was unclear if and when the UN would act, given China’s stance. However, a source said there were examples where cases had been heard with only one side present.
Rene de Castro, a political science professor at Manila’s De La Salle University, said the Philippines’ submission was a last throw of the dice and unlikely to force Beijing’s hand.
“I don’t think China will bite the bait. It has been consistent with its position that territorial disputes ought to be solved bilaterally,” De Castro said.
“We have exhausted all our options and we’re scraping the barrel, really,” he added.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
GREATER REACH? Auto parts and wood products would face tariffs of up to 15%, matching those targeting the EU, Japan and South Korea, Vice Premier said The US has announced that preferential tariff treatment for Taiwan’s non-semiconductor Section 232 goods would take effect retroactively from May 1, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The US government yesterday posted a notice on the Federal Register’s public inspection Web site previewing tariff concessions for Taiwan under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Taiwan-US investment after two months of negotiations. The MOU signed on Jan. 15 stipulated three major preferential tariff arrangements: a 15 percent “reciprocal” tariff rate for Taiwan without stacking most-favored nation (MFN) rates; preferential Section 232 treatment for semiconductors and related products; and preferential Section 232 treatment for non-semiconductor
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS