China’s sovereignty claim over the Taiwan Strait is false, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that the only waters a country has full sovereignty over are the 12 nautical miles (22km) around its territory.
Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) reiterated that the government considers the Taiwan Strait to be international waters, except for the 12-nautical-mile strip defined as territorial waters.
“Our government has always respected any activity conducted by foreign vessels in the Taiwan Strait that is allowed under international law,” she said, including US vessels passing through.
Photo courtesy of the Military News Agency
“We understand and support the freedom of navigation operations conducted by the US, as these operations promote peace and stability in the region,” she said.
Ou accused Beijing of “distorting international law” in ignoring Taipei’s 12-nautical-mile sovereignty claim in the Taiwan Strait, and said that by downgrading the Strait to its own exclusive economic zone (EEZ), China “revealed its ambition to annex Taiwan.”
Taiwan would continue to work with like-minded countries to uphold a rules-based international order, and promote peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, she added.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
On Monday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said that Beijing had sovereign and administrative rights to the Taiwan Strait, and denied US claims that the channel should be treated as international waters.
Wang claimed that the waterway fell within China’s territorial waters and EEZ as defined by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and domestic law.
“China enjoys sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait, while respecting the legitimate rights of other countries in the relevant maritime areas,” Wang said in Beijing. “There is no such thing as ‘international waters’ in UNCLOS. By claiming that the Taiwan Strait is international waters, some countries intend to create an excuse for its manipulation of the Taiwan issue, and threaten China’s sovereignty and security.”
UNCLOS states that countries can claim waters within 12 nautical miles of their coastline as territorial seas, where they have full sovereignty.
They can also claim the waters within 200 nautical miles of their coastline as an EEZ, where they have a sovereign right to the water column, sea floor and resources, but other countries still have the right to sail through or fly over the waters.
Most of the Taiwan Strait is less than 200 nautical miles wide, resulting in overlapping EEZ claims by Taiwan and China in the waterway.
Although UNCLOS does not define “international waters,” it does define “high seas” as referring to waters that are beyond the territorial sea or to areas outside EEZs that do not belong to any state’s jurisdiction.
The Democratic Progressive Party yesterday issued a news release condemning the Chinese statements as baseless and attempting to unilaterally upset the “status quo.”
The Chinese statement is a declaration of its expansionist ambitions, attempting to contravene Taiwan’s sovereignty, disrupt the international maritime order, and disrupt regional peace and stability, it said.
China should not live in its own world and push a baseless claim, the party said, calling for the Chinese Communist Party to halt its actions before it causes irreparable harm.
US-based China affairs analyst Ian Easton told the Central News Agency that the Chinese government and military are “increasing their long-term campaign of coercion against Taiwan, and they plan to be even more provocative in the future.”
“In my view, it is time for the US to step up and do more to support regional security. A US Navy ship visit to Taiwan, public visits from high-level American officials and bilateral US-Taiwan defense drills are all long overdue,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source