The US hopes Taiwan’s new government can make available relevant historical data on the South China Sea and shed light on the status of the Republic of China’s (ROC) “U-shaped line” in the region in the face of international law, National Taiwan Ocean University’s Institute of the Law of the Sea director Robert Chen (陳荔彤) said on Thursday.
The “U-shaped line” refers to the ROC’s formal claim of sovereign territory in the South China Sea post-World War II, in accordance with agreements made in the Cairo Declaration of Nov. 27, 1943, and the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945.
Chen was in Washington last week for an annual meeting of the American Society of International Law.
Photo: Tsao Yu-fen, Taipei Times
According to Chen, US officials said Washington felt President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration did not react strongly enough to China’s large-scale land reclamation projects in the South China Sea, adding that the US felt the Ma administration had not showed great support toward the US sending ships and planes into the region to bolster freedom of navigation and flight.
While the Ma administration’s explanation of the “U-shaped line” is correct, the most important part is the claims based on “historic rights,” Chen said.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), territorial water can only be claimed if it is connected to a nation’s sovereign territory, Chen said, adding that the “U-shaped line” contravened this.
However, Chen also said that the UNCLOS came into effect in 1980, while the ROC had already claimed islands — most notably Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) — in the South China Sea in 1947, adding that despite the ROC government retreating to Taiwan in 1949, the nation’s claim was staked in 1947 and should not be given up lightly.
The incoming government should continue to adhere to such ambiguous claims, Chen said, adding that an “actual takeover” of the islands in the South China Sea had been researched, announced and implemented without dispute at the time.
Chen said he told US officials that Taiwan’s claims had strategic ambiguity and he hoped the US would support such a move, adding that Taiwan would not seek to cooperate with China in the South China Sea, nor would it enter into conflict against China over the issue.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS