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China and The Philippines Continue South China Sea Disagreement All The Way To International Court
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The Sierra Madre, a rusted warship that has been grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal since 1999, has been kept in place as a way to reinforce the Philippine claim to the shoal. Credit Jay Directo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Jane Perlez
The New York Times
The New York Times
BEIJING — China accused the Philippines on Monday of illegally occupying Chinese territory after a Filipino vessel outmaneuvered the Chinese Coast Guard and resupplied a ship that has been stranded for 15 years on the Second Thomas Shoal, a tiny reef in the South China Sea.
Chinese ships prevented the Philippines from resupplying the boat and its eight-man military crew in early March, but on Saturday a Filipino vessel manned by troops managed to keep the Chinese at bay by going into shallow waters and lifting food onto the stranded ship.
“This is a political provocation,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Hong Lei, said at a regular briefing on Monday, adding that the Philippines was “hyping” its “illegal occupation” by filing a case on Sunday with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
The submission by the Philippines argues that the Second Thomas Shoal — known as Ayungin in the Philippines and Ren’ai Reef in China — is 105 nautical miles from the Philippines, well inside the 200 nautical miles of a Philippine exclusive economic zone that allows the Philippines to exploit the waters around the shoal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the brief says.
The Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, Albert del Rosario, said at a news conference in Manila on Sunday that a ruling on the submission — which includes 4,000 pages and 40 maps and was written by a Washington law firm — was expected in 2015.
The State Department noted the filing Sunday and said the United States supported the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
The cat-and-mouse maneuvers between the Philippines, an American ally with little naval capacity, and China, which has a fast-expanding navy, have captured attention for what they might foretell about future rivalries in the South China Sea.
China claims about 80 percent of the South China Sea, a vital waterway for world trade.
President Obama is scheduled to visit the Philippines during a tour of Asian allies in April, a trip that does not include China but is bound to highlight China’s projection of power in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
In the past year, China has intensified its surveillance operations in the South China Sea, dispatching fishing vessels, coast guard ships and navy ships to keep watch.
To publicize its determination to keep the Second Thomas Shoal, the Philippines invited reporters on board the government vessel that was sent to resupply the Sierra Madre, a rusted warship that has been grounded on the reef since 1999. The warship and its crew had been kept in place as a way to reinforce the Philippine claim to the shoal.
China says that the shoal is part of the Nansha Islands, which it says are inside the so-called nine-dash line that runs deep into the waters around Southeast Asia. The line was first drawn by the Nationalist government in the 1940s and has been used by the Communist government to justify its claims to a wide area of islands and sea.
As the resupply vessel approached the Sierra Madre on Saturday, two Chinese ships approached the Filipino vessel and sent a radio message saying that it should leave immediately and “stop all” illegal activities. The Filipino vessel kept going and found waters too shallow for the Chinese ships so that the resupply operation could go ahead, Reuters reported.
After food and water were heaved onto the Sierra Madre, the crew on board left and a new crew began its rotation.
The Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper with nationalist views, said in an editorial on Monday that the “small and weak” Philippines had become the vanguard force of “provoking China.” It warned that China had the ability to force Filipino soldiers off the reef at any time, “like taking thieves away.”
Tags: arbitration, Ayungin, China, China's navy, Chinese state-run newspapers, communist government, EEZ, international court,international law, Nansha Islands, Philippines, PLA Navy, Ren'ai Reef,Second Thomas Shoal, Sierra Madre, South China Sea, territorial disputes, The Hague, UNCLOS, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
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March 31, 2014 at 7:30 pm |