PHL government urged to protest new Chinese districts in SCS

 

In its report, South China Morning Post reported “the new districts will govern the Paracels and Macclesfield Bank – an area claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan – as well as the Spratly Islands and their adjacent waters, where there are multiple overlapping claims.”

 

Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said this only shows “that China has been relentless in exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic as it continues to pursue its illegal and expansive claims in the South China Sea to the prejudice of Filipinos, the ASEAN States and the international community as a whole.”

 

Del Rosario urged the Duterte administration to protest the establishment of two districts where claimant countries including the Philippines have overlapping claims.

 

In a statement, Del Rosario said, “we therefore respectfully urge our government to protest this recent action of China, as it rightly did over the sinking of the Vietnamese fishing boat on April 8, 2020.”

 

“These recent events in the South China Sea remind us Filipinos to be eternally vigilant in the defense of our country’s territory and sovereign rights even as we confront a very grave threat as Covid-19,” Del Rosario added.

 

The former top diplomat reminds Filipinos to “not also risk losing our national patrimony upheld by international law and meant for present and future generations of Filipinos.”

China has continuously expanded its presence in the contested waters in recent years through the building of artificial islands with military facilities and surface to air missiles.

South China Sea analyst Carl Thayer described China's latest action as "provocative," "illegal" and without basis under international law.

 

Thayer explained in an e-mailed statement that Beijing’s actions violated the Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) which China and ASEAN members agreed to in 2002.

 

The University of New South Wales Professor Emeritus added that the “international law does not recognize sovereignty through acquired conquest,” referring to Paragraph 5 of the DOC, that states: “The Parties undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability” in the South China Sea.

 

He also warned that regulations and directives that Chinese administrators may issue in the future may affect the sovereignty and sovereign jurisdiction that may push aside the sovereignty claims of Vietnam and the Philippines in the contested region.