Contested Waters Carry Huge Volume of World Trade
By James Hookway
The Philippines filed an arbitration case Sunday with the United Nations over China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, raising the ante in a long-running dispute over who owns what in the strategic, energy-rich waters.
Manila has been preparing for months to file its challenge to China's claim to control everything within a broad expanse of the sea delineated by its so-called "nine-dash line." The Philippines' submission is nearly 4,000 pages long, includes more than 40 maps and is aimed at countering Beijing's argument that controlling mostly submerged features such as reefs or shoals provides China with sovereignty over the sea, including some 80% of the Philippines' U.N.-declared exclusive economic zone.
The contested waters include areas potentially rich in oil and gas, as well as rich fishing waters such as Scarborough Shoal, where Philippine and Chinese vessels were locked in a standoff for nearly two months in 2012.
China so far has abstained from the proceedings in the matter, which the Philippines first raised in January under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. Now that the case for arbitration has been filed, the UN tribunal will decide on what steps are to be taken next.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said on Sunday that seeking arbitration "is about defending what is legitimately ours" and securing a "just and durable solution grounded on International Law."
China's foreign ministry dismissed the arbitration filing in a statement posted on its website Sunday night, reiterating its position that it considers the dispute a bilateral matter to be resolved through direct negotiations. "Regardless of how the Philippines packages its complaint, the direct cause of the dispute is illegal occupation of reefs in the South China Sea on the part of the Philippines," it said.
The Philippines' challenge comes as Manila engages in another protracted cat-and-mouse game to evade Chinese ships apparently attempting to blockade one of the Philippines' few outposts in the region: a rusting hulk marooned on Second Thomas Shoal.
A Philippine ship managed Saturday to slip past a Chinese vessel to resupply a small contingent of Filipino soldiers aboard the World War II-era Sierra Madre, which was steered onto Second Thomas Shoal in 1999. The wreck is one of the Philippines' few visible claims to sovereignty in the South China Sea, something of a symbolic marker in efforts to withstand China's growing ambitions.
In recent weeks China has attempted to stop Philippine forces from resupplying the wreck, forcing the Philippines to conduct air drops. Journalists from the Associated Press and other news organizations were aboard the Philippine supply vessel and reported hearing a Chinese coast guard ship warning it to stay away by radio. The Philippine ship, carrying some 10 tons of food and water, slipped away after heading into shallower waters where the Chinese vessel couldn't follow.
China's foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday that "China will absolutely not allow the Philippines to occupy" Second Thomas Shoal.
The Philippine legal challenge to China's claims is perhaps a more significant display of resistance.
The waters, which carry around half of the world's trade, are also claimed in part by Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan and tensions have led to a series of confrontations in past decades. Any decision by the U.N. could bear on how the overlapping territorial claims are ultimately resolved and could stir tensions between China and the U.S.
The Obama administration infuriated Beijing in 2010 when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the free navigation of the South China Sea as being in America's "national interest."
China has since attempted to step up control, among other things dispatching nominally civilian coast guard vessels into disputed waters. Beijing argues each territorial dispute should be resolved on a bilateral basis. Washington and the Association of Southeast Asian want a multilateral, rules-based approach.
Sumber - WSJ.com
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