The government yesterday said that it does not recognize or accept a ruling by an international arbitration panel that it could hear a case brought by the Philippines against China over disputed territory in the South China Sea.
The Philippines has not invited the Republic of China (ROC) to participate in its arbitration with China, and the arbitration tribunal has not solicited the ROC’s views, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement.
“Therefore, the arbitration does not affect the ROC in any way, and the ROC neither recognizes nor accepts related awards,” it said.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
The ministry’s statement came after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands on Thursday ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear the case, in which the Philippines argues that China’s “nine-dash line” territorial claim over South China Sea waters is unlawful under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The statement seemed to indicate a stronger stance from the ministry than its initial response a day earlier, when it said the ROC’s determination to defend its sovereignty over four island chains in the South China Sea is not open to question and that it is closely following the developments in the case and would take measures as necessary.
The Philippines filed the case before the tribunal in The Hague in 2013 to seek a ruling on its right to exploit the South China Sea waters within its 200-nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zone as allowed under the UN convention.
Taiwan is taking an interest in the case because it is one of the countries that claim all or parts of the South China Sea. Other claimants are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Taiwan controls one of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) and one of the largest of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) — Itu Aba (Taiping Island, 太平島).
In a statement, the ministry reiterated Taiwan’s stance on the South China Sea, saying that from the perspective of history, geography and international law, the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha Islands, 中沙群島) and Pratas Islands in the region, as well as their surrounding waters, “are an inherent part of ROC territory and waters.”
“As the ROC enjoys all rights to these islands and their surrounding waters in accordance with international law, the ROC government does not recognize any claim to sovereignty over, or occupation of, these areas by other countries, irrespective of the reasons put forward or methods used for such claim or occupation,” it said.
Also, the South China Sea islands were first discovered, named and used, as well as incorporated into national territory, by the Chinese, the ministry said.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1952 and the Treaty of Peace between the ROC and Japan, which was signed in the same year, as well as other international legal instruments, reconfirm that the islands and reefs in the South China Sea occupied by Japan were returned to the ROC, it added.
The ROC moved its seat of government to Taipei after Nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) were defeated by the Chinese communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Another point the ministry made in the statement was that ROC forces began to garrison Taiping Island in 1956, it said.
“From legal, economic and geographic perspectives, Taiping Island indisputably qualifies as an ‘island,’ according to the specifications of Article 121 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and can sustain human habitation and economic life of its own; it is thus categorically not a ‘rock’ under the same article,” it said.
Although Taiwan is not a contracting party to the UNCLOS, the ministry urged countries involved in the South China Sea dispute to respect the provisions and spirit of the UN Charter and the UNCLOS, and to exercise restraint, safeguard peace and stability in the region, uphold the freedom of navigation and overflight through the region, refrain from taking any action that might escalate tension and resolve disputes peacefully.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has