A supreme court justice of the Philippines holds President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in such high esteem that he said he would nominate him for a Nobel peace prize if his East and South China Sea peace initiatives produces good results for regional peace and stability.
Philippine media outlet Interaksyon, on Wednesday reported that Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Antonio Carpio made the remarks during a speech to students and faculty at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila last week.
The media quoted Carpio as telling his audience that it was only his personal view, which might not necessarily be in line with the Philippine government position.
Carpio reportedly quoted Ma as saying that the government of the Republic of China (ROC) announced the geographic locations of its islands in the South China Sea in 1947, when most other nations only had the concept of territorial waters, but not of other sea territories.
In September last year, during a visit to Academia Historica in Taipei, Ma said that when the ROC sent Navy ships to take over the islands in the South China Sea that had been occupied by Japan during World War II, no countries lodged a protest.
Besides elaborating on the legitimacy of Taiwan’s claims of sovereignty over the islands, Ma put forth a proposal that basically extended his call for peace in the East China Sea by urging all parties concerned to peacefully resolve their disputes over the South China Sea islands.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has relied on the ROC government’s “nine-dash line” map to claim that the PRC has “indisputable territory” over the South China Sea, including over islands, reefs, shoals and waters claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan and their ASEAN neighbors, according to the Interaksyon report.
Carpio has found a new diplomatic weapon in Ma that could help the Philippines in its lopsided battle against China and its overarching ambition to convert the entire South China Sea into its private garrison, it said.
It said that Carpio supports Ma’s position that the ROC’s “nine-dash line” map of 1947 is limited to the islands and their adjacent territorial waters within the South China Sea, and that the ROC government, according to Ma, had made “no other so-called claims to sea regions.”
“President Ma’s interpretation of the ‘9-dash lines’ drastically reduces the area of dispute from nearly the entire South China Sea to only the Spratly Islands [Nansha Islands, 南沙群島] and their surrounding territorial seas, comprising less than 5 percent of the waters of the South China Sea,” Carpio said.
The media outlet said Carpio was enthusiastic in his admiration for Ma because of his lawyer background, like Carpio himself, and his Harvard doctoral degree with specialization in the law of the sea and his academic articles on the subject.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to