PH says China’s territory subject to Unclos

 News
Jan 222014
 
PH says China’s territory subject to Unclos

By Tarra QuismundoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 10:02 pm | Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014 DFA spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez. FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines insisted on Wednesday that under international law, China could not project its power beyond its boundaries, following Beijing’s announcement of fresh sea patrols in disputed parts of the South China Sea. In a statement, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Raul Hernandez invoked the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) to remind China of the limits of its territory. “Under international law, including Unclos, China’s [exclusive economic zone] cannot extend beyond [370 kilometers] measured from the Chinese mainland and Hainan island. Coastal states have sovereign rights over their EEZ,” Hernandez said. Hernandez insisted that China might not project its sovereign rights in the high seas, as provided under international law. “Also under international law there is a high seas area in the South China Sea over which no state can exercise sovereignty,” he said. China announced earlier this week that a 5,000-ton civilian vessel will begin regular patrols in the South China sea to “safeguard national sovereign rights and benefits, develop at-sea assistance, ensure navigational safety.” The announcement followed China’s implementation of a fisheries law requiring foreign vessels to seek approval of Chinese authorities to fish and explore in the South China Sea. The Philippines, which calls the waters within its EEZ West Philippine Sea, is protesting the regulation. Vietnam, which has territorial claims in part of the South China Sea that it Read More …

Hundreds protest China’s ‘bullying’ of PHL

 Entertainment
Jul 252013
 

MANILA, July 24, 2013 (AFP) – Hundreds of Philippine activists on Wednesday accused China of “gunboat diplomacy”, demonstrating at a noisy Manila protest against the Asian giant’s moves to stake its claims in the South China Sea. Riot police cordoned off the entrance to an office building housing the Chinese consulate as an estimated one […]

Hundreds protest China’s ‘bullying’ of Philippines

 News
Jul 242013
 
Hundreds protest China’s ‘bullying’ of Philippines

Agence France-Presse 6:58 pm | Wednesday, July 24th, 2013 Risa Hontiveros. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Hundreds of Philippine activists on Wednesday accused China of “gunboat diplomacy”, demonstrating at a noisy Manila protest against the Asian giant’s moves to stake its claims in the South China Sea. Riot police cordoned off the entrance to an office building housing the Chinese consulate as an estimated one thousand demonstrators took Beijing to task for “bullying” the Philippines. The protest, which ended peacefully two hours later, came amid festering tensions between the two neighbours over Scarborough Shoal, a Philippine-claimed outcrop seized by China after a two-month naval stand-off last year. “Our simple message for China today is to stop your intrusions, and stop your bullying of other claimant countries,” Risa Hontiveros, a former member of parliament and one of the protest leaders, told AFP. The demonstrators, who included politicians, former military officers and church officials, accused China in a statement handed out at the protest of implementing “gunboat diplomacy in the region”. They put up a portable stage on the street, snarling traffic as they sang patriotic songs, blew horns, danced and hoisted anti-Chinese slogans. China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea, even waters close to the shores of its smaller neighbours. Apart from Scarborough, the Philippines has also protested the presence of Chinese navy vessels near Philippine-held Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands. The islands have been a source of regional tension for decades, with China and Vietnam Read More …

PHL govt welcomes China's decision to hold talks on sea code

 News
Jul 042013
 
PHL govt welcomes China's decision to hold talks on sea code

The Philippine government on Thursday described as a “forward step” China’s decision to discuss a code of conduct on the South China Sea with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. At a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the Philippines is ready to discuss its draft of the code with Chinese officials to try to diffuse tension at the South China Sea. “We have already drafted the code of conduct, and we have asked them to discuss it with us. China has already said that they are discussing with us, so this is a step in the right direction,” Lacierda said. The President’s spokesperson refused to “speculate” when asked if the Philippine government thinks China is only using talks on the code as a delaying tactic. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said his country has agreed to hold “official consultations” on a proposed code of conduct on the South China Sea with Southeast Asian nations.   Sea dispute China is asserting its historial claim on the entire South China Sea. The Philippines, however, is claiming its ownership of some parts of the South China Sea—which it calls the West Philippine Sea—under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims over parts of the South China Sea.  Lacierda said that the Philippines will continue to seek international arbitration on its territorial dispute with China while talks on the sea code are ongoing. “We have used the proper approaches, Read More …

Chinese research base starts ops in disputed area of South China Sea

 News
Jun 282013
 
Chinese research base starts ops in disputed area of South China Sea

China’s Hainan province has established a maritime fishery resource breeding and research base in a disputed area of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). A report on China’s Xinhua news agency said the facility was established in sea waters of the Zhongsha Islands, which China claims includes Scarborough Shoal. Li Xiangmin, director of the Hainan provincial aquaculture research institute, said the base is located in the Manbu Ansha area, a submerged shoal in the Zhongsha Islands. It covers a sea area of 625 hectares, he said. China earlier said the Zhongsha Islands include Scarborough Shoal, which China refers to as Huangyan Island but which the Philippines calls Bajo de Masinloc. Xinhua said the new base is the “first approved scientific program since Sansha City was officially established in July 2012.” Li said aquaculture researchers will put into the sea for research some 20,000 grouper fry, 20,000 spats of pearl oysters, 20,000 spats of pteria penguin, a genus of winged oyster, and 20,000 pieces of red seaweeds eucheuma. Researchers will also conduct field investigation and scientific research activities on the weather, hydrological and topographic conditions, maritime species, submarine grassland and coral reefs in Manbu Ansha in the next three days. Sansha The Xinhua report said Sansha, which has 1,000 residents, was set up to administer some 2.6 million square kilometers of islands, coastal areas and territorial seas. But the Philippines claimed Filipinos had settled in the islands where Sansha stands as early as 1978. “Yung ating local government matagal na, Read More …

Philippines, US to hold naval exercises near disputed reef

 News
Jun 202013
 
Philippines, US to hold naval exercises near disputed reef

Agance France-Presse 3:11 pm | Thursday, June 20th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines – The United States and the Philippines are to hold joint naval maneuvers in the South China Sea next week between the main island of Luzon and a reef claimed by both China and Manila, the Filipino navy said Thursday. The exercises taking place from June 27 to July 2 by the two allies are to be held about 108 kilometers (67 miles) east of Scarborough Shoal, navy spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Gregory Fabic told AFP. Chinese government vessels are still believed to be patrolling the waters around the shoal after a lengthy stand-off last year with the Philippines, which ended with a Filipino retreat. “This was planned way back in 2010. Whatever happened since then was purely coincidental,” Fabic said when asked if holding the exercises there this year were a way for the Philippines to reassert its sovereignty over the shoal. The maneuvers would be held over 12,347 square kilometers (4,767 square miles) of waters, he added. Chinese embassy spokesmen in Manila could not be reached for comment Thursday. Beijing claims it has sovereign rights over nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters far away from its main landmass and approaching the coasts of Southeast Asian countries. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the sea, and the area has for decades been regarded as a potential trigger for major military conflict in the region. Since last month the Philippine navy has also Read More …

US eyes progress on South China Sea tensions

 News
Jun 052013
 
US eyes progress on South China Sea tensions

WASHINGTON – A US official on Wednesday voiced hope that China and Southeast Asian nations will start talks soon on a code of conduct to resolve disputes over the South China Sea after repeated flare-ups. Joe Yun, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said that China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) made apparent progress during a working-level meeting last week in Bangkok. “I think there seems to be an understanding that at a future date, maybe sometime this year, they will announce a formal beginning of negotiations” on a code of conduct, Yun told the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If that’s the case, we would genuinely welcome it because we see CoC as a key piece of the puzzle that would bring peaceful resolution” to rival claims in the South China Sea, Yun said. Tensions have soared in recent years as Vietnam and the Philippines accuse China of increasingly assertive claims to territories in the South China Sea, through which around half of the world’s cargo passes. The broader region is also rife with maritime disputes, with the Philippines and Taiwan recently at loggerheads and China and Japan embroiled in a bitter dispute over islands in potentially energy-rich waters of the East China Sea. Yun reiterated that the United States does not take sides in territorial disputes and that a code of conduct, which would formalize rules of behavior, offered the best way to prevent further conflict. “To be frank with Read More …

Snub by Chinese foreign minister no big deal–Del Rosario

 News
May 052013
 
Snub by Chinese foreign minister no big deal–Del Rosario

By TJ A. Burgonio Philippine Daily Inquirer 3:52 am | Monday, May 6th, 2013 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, shakes hands with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, May 1, 2013. AP PHOTO/SAKCHAI LALIT MANILA, Philippines—Filipinos shouldn’t make a big deal over the failure of new Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit the country even as he called at four other Southeast Asian nations, Malacañang said on Sunday. “We have not given a second thought to the visits to four Southeast Asian countries by the new Chinese foreign minister. The visits are his prerogative,” said Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario in a statement released by the Palace. Undersecretary Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokesperson, agreed. “We recognize perfectly the prerogative of the Chinese foreign minister to set his own agenda for his trips outside his country,” she said in a radio interview. Wang made his first official visits to Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei between April 30 and May 5. Manila and Beijing are locked in a long-running dispute over islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). The Philippines has brought the matter to the United Nations. Portions of the South China Sea are being claimed in whole or in part by China, and the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan. Still, Del Rosario said, he looked forward to meeting Wang and working closely with him “at the appropriate time.” “We reiterate our congratulations and wish him great success,” he added.

South China Sea: A decades-long source of tension

 News
Apr 242013
 
South China Sea: A decades-long source of tension

Agence France-Presse 6:17 pm | Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN — Competing claims to the South China Sea have for decades been a source of tension in the region. China’s increasing assertiveness in staking its claim in recent years has caused concern for neighboring countries, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam. The South China Sea issue will be a top priority for Association of Southeast Asian (Asean) leaders during their two-day summit in Brunei beginning on Wednesday. Below are key facts on the sea and the competing claims: Geography The South China Sea covers more than 3 million square kilometers (1.16 million square miles) on the western edge of the Pacific, with China and Taiwan to the north, the Philippines to the east, Borneo island to the south, and Vietnam to the west. It contains hundreds of small islands, islets and rocks, most of which are uninhabited. The Paracel and Spratly chains contain the biggest islands. Significance The sea is the main maritime link between the Pacific and Indian oceans, giving it enormous trade and military value. Its shipping lanes connect East Asia with Europe and the Middle East. Major unexploited oil and gas deposits are believed to lie under the seabed. The sea is home to some of world’s biggest coral reefs and, with marine life being depleted close to coasts, it is important as a source of fish to feed growing populations. Claimants China and Taiwan both claim nearly all of the sea, while Vietnam, the Philippines, Read More …

Chinese military officials join maritime disaster response talks in Balikatan exercises

 News
Apr 152013
 
Chinese military officials join maritime disaster response talks in Balikatan exercises

Amid the ongoing territorial dispute between China and the Philippines, two Chinese military officials on Monday joined their Filipino and American counterparts in talks on maritime disaster response as part of the annual Balikatan military exercises. According to Brig. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, deputy chief of staff for operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), this marks the first time China joined such a discussion, since it is also the first time the Philippines and the United States opened the Balikatan exercises to other countries. “Ang Balikatan, originally, military to military ng US saka ng Pilipinas lang. Now, parang ine-expand naman natin ito as we globalize. What if something happens doon sa international waters? How do we respond to it?” Baladad told reporters Monday. He added that the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines over parts of the South China Sea had nothing to do with the talks, since the discussions were on how to respond to maritime disasters such as oil spills. “This is a multi-national approach. Kapitbahay natin sila, and just like other countries, they are one of the responders kung sakaling magkaroon ng incident na kailangang mag-respond in international waters… Sa disaster response siguro, wala nang mga tampuhan muna,” Baladad said. China and the Philippines, as well as Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, have overlapping claims on the islands, shoals and reefs in the South China Sea where undersea gas deposits have been discovered in several areas. In January, Manila initiated an arbitration process under Read More …

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