A US academic is urging President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to defuse tensions in the South China Sea by clarifying the “nine-dash line” and bringing Taiwan’s maritime claims into conformity with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Center for Strategic and International Studies senior Asia adviser Bonnie Glaser said that while the Ma administration has been “creative and constructive” in its East China Sea diplomacy, it has remained “mostly silent” as tensions have risen among claimants in the South China Sea.
“By clarifying its claims, Taiwan can remind the other claimants and the international community that it has important interests at stake in the South China Sea and is willing to be a constructive player in managing the disputes,” she said in a paper published this week by the center.
Glaser said that the primary source of instability in the South China Sea is the nine-dash line, which was originally an 11-dash line drawn by the Republic of China government in 1947.
She said that Jeffrey Bader, a former senior director for East Asia on US President Barack Obama’s national security staff, recently proposed that Washington discuss with Taiwan whether it can clarify its position on the nine-dash line.
“A first step could be for Taiwan to thoroughly review the Republic of China historical archives to fully understand the original intention behind the drawing of the 11-dash line,” Glaser said.
Taiwan should identify which of the land features that it claims are islands it believes are entitled to a 200 nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and which are rocks that are only entitled to a 12 nautical mile territorial sea, she added.
In accordance with UNCLOS, the full EEZ limits could be claimed for islands in the central part of the South China Sea, Glaser said. EEZ claims for islands that are close to China’s coast or main archipelago of the ASEAN claimants would be limited to the mid-point in the waters from the islands claimed by Taiwan to the land belonging to the other claimant states, she said.
“Such a clarification of Taiwan’s claim would not necessitate revision of the [ROC] Constitution, as some experts have maintained, since Taipei would not need to modify its national boundaries or alter its sovereignty claims,” Glaser said.
In response to Taiwan’s positive approach, ASEAN might respond by supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in discussions with Beijing on establishing a code of conduct for the South China Sea, she said.
Most importantly, Taiwan’s action would put pressure on Beijing to also clarify its maritime claims in the South China Sea, which are based on the original 11-dash line that the People’s Republic of China inherited when it took over China in 1949, she said.
“If Mainland China were to follow in Taiwan’s footsteps and clarify its claims in accordance with UNCLOS, discussions could ensue on how to manage areas of overlapping claims, including joint development arrangements and peace and stability could be significantly enhanced in the region,” Glaser said.
She said that Beijing “would likely not welcome” a decision by Taiwan to clarify the meaning of the nine-dash line and abandonment of “historic rights” to natural resources in areas in the EEZ or continental shelf of other nations as required by UNCLOS.
China prefers joint cooperation to assert the “common” claims of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, she said.
“President Ma has rejected such cooperation, however,” Glaser said. “Clarification of Taiwan’s South China Sea claim, based on its own national interests, is unlikely to cause a reversal of the general trend of improving cross-strait relations, which benefits both sides.”
“As a claimant in the South China Sea dispute and a law-abiding nation, Taiwan has the opportunity to set a positive example and chart a peaceful course toward management and eventual resolution of maritime disputes in East Asia,” she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and