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.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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