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.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique