Recently, the Philippines has again been playing new tricks over the question of the South Sea. Philippine newspapers disclosed that in order to divide up the oil and gas resources of the South Sea, the Philippines plans to extend the limit of its continental shelf from the present 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles. In addition, the Philippines has intensified its move to seize and detain Chinese fishermen and fishing boats, thus far it still locks up large batches of Chinese fishermen.
Vice-Foreign Minister of Philippines Plays New Tricks
Recently, a vice-foreign minister of the Philippines declared that in order to extend the limit of Philippine continental shaft from 200 miles to 350 miles, his country has exerted great efforts in prospecting in the South Sea and has obtained abundant materials including geographical data, and that they would soon submit these materials to related UN agencies and urge the UN to satisfy the demand of the Philippines.
According to the division of work of the Philippine government, the said vice-foreign minister does not have the right to attend to the South Sea matter, but why does he raise such demand to the United Nations? It turns out that in the Philippines, anyone who can have a say on matters about the Nansha Islands can have his or her political status raised.
In addition, there is a special reason why this deputy official dares to make indiscreet remarks about the question of the South Sea. Before he started his political career, he had once served as dean of the law institute of Philippine University.
At the same time, he is also a famous expert in international law of the Philippines. The Philippine opinion comments on this by saying that this official's move is aimed at gaining greater political capital on the strength of his "particular skill".
On the question of the South Sea, this deputy puts forward two main points of advocacy: First, he claimed that the Philippines should also have a share of the petroleum resources in the South Sea. According to what he said, the petroleum resources of the South Sea are estimated to be over 225 billion barrels.
Second, the Philippines should extend the range of the continental shaft. According to the stipulations of the United Nations Maritime Law Convention, the limit of the continental shaft is 200 nautical miles. But the said official claimed that an island country like the Philippines with a special geological structure should have the limit of its continental shaft extended to 350 miles.
Whatever Changes One Makes, One's Main Purple Unchanged
According to the analysis of a Chinese expert studying the disputes over Nansha Islands, said Philippine official's proposal is, he tries to divide up the South Sea area by distorting the international maritime law under the guise of extracting petroleum, this is encroachment on China's sovereignty. Because in terms of history and juridical logic, China is the sole legal owner of the Nansha water region and, in terms of either international law or international practice, the saying of the Philippines is untenable.
The South Sea, or the South China Sea as the Westerners call it, is a semi-closed fringing sea on the Pacific Ocean, which covers an area of 3.5 million km. Scattered in the South Sea area are more than 200 islands, sandbanks, underwater sandy beaches, reefs and shoals made up of coral reefs, of which Nansha Islands lying between 4-12 degrees N. and 109-degree 3'-117-degree 50' E. are the islands of the most strategic and economic values. Disputes between China, the Philippines and some other countries over the sovereignty related to island reefs and territorial waters are concentrated in the water regions of Nansha Islands.
The Philippines had, as early as 1946, had the intention of occupying Nansha Islands. At that time Philippine foreign minister declared that his country intended to include Nansha Islands into the "limits of its defense". After the 1970s, the Philippines began implementing its occupation plan, it had many times openly sent troops to invade and occupy eight island reefs of Nansha Islands. In 1978, the Philippines announced the presidential order No. 1596, and incorporated most island reefs of Nansha Islands and nearby sea areas into so-called Calayan region and in 1991 proclaimed the establishment of "Calayan city".
At the same time, the Philippines incessantly invented a legal basis for its invasion and occupation acts. At first it had two main bases: first, it declared those islands called "Calayan islands" as "land without owner", so the Philippines could gain the sovereignty through occupation; second, the "Calayan islands" being close to the Philippines are vitally important to its security and its economic lifelines.
However, China's jurisdiction over Nansha Islands in history gains international recognition. According to the UN Maritime Law Convention, the distance of an island from the native land of a certain country is not a factor determining the ownership of sovereignty over the island. This is the same in principles as Guam and Hawaii Islands which are far away from the native land of the United States, but they still belong to the United States.
Later, the Philippines made use of the concepts of the continental shaft and other maritime law to justify its acts of invasion and occupation of China's island reefs. In accordance with the 1958 Continental Shaft Convention, the continental shaft usually refers to the sea-bed and seabed soil with a gentle slope that starts from the coast and extends outward under the sea water, the depth of sea water generally does not exceed 200 meters and the slope of the seabed generally does not surpass one-tenth.
The 1982 UN Maritime Law Convention stipulates the continental shaft of a coastal country is limited within 200 miles. But the Philippine-declared 200 mile continental shaft was calculated on the basis of its occupation of China's island reefs, in this way, the Philippine side had occupied a 620,000 square km of sea area of the South China Sea.
This being the case, the vice-foreign minister's proposal on extending its continental shaft to 350 miles actually is an act of intensifying its occupation of China's water region, its intention is obviously to consolidate and enlarge its occupation of China's island reefs.
However, said official's plan is impracticable. First, according to the maritime law, the Philippines' practice of taking China's sea area as its own is an encroachment upon China's sovereignty. In addition, Article 6 of the 1958 Continental Shaft Convention stipulates that unilateral determination of the limits of the continental shaft is prohibited. Given this, the said plan is nothing more than a fool's talks
Being Increasingly Fierce and Crude Toward Chinese Fishermen
In recent years, the Philippines has been increasingly inclined to take both civil and military actions toward Nansha Islands. Its civil tactic is like the vice-foreign minister's plan, while militarily, it is often very rude to Chinese fishermen. Nansha water region abounds in fishery resources, apart from fishermen of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, many other fisherman of the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia also swarm to the area for fishing, disputes over fishing often occur here. In recent years, the Philippines has become increasingly tough in their attitude toward the Chinese fishermen fishing in the disputed sea area.
In January this year, at least four Chinese fishing boats were unreasonably captured by the Philippine joint forces of coastal guards, naval force and security personnel. Relevant Philippine departments are very severe in their attitude. One official of Palawan Province said: The Philippines must make a decision to tell these Chinese and their government, we will absolutely not allow them to engage in illegal fishing in our sea area. The whole nation is waiting for a stern decision to be taken by the government.
A Philippine official recently disclosed that due to the slow progress of the trial work, the 116 Chinese fishermen have all along been locked up in a prison in Palawan Province. According to a warder assigned to watch Chinese fishermen, currently, at least 30 Chinese fishermen have contracted smallpox; This 16-roomed prison originally could accommodate only 200 prisoners, but now 463 people are put behind bar, "with Chinese fishermen being crowded among them".
Experts noted that the Philippines has incessantly taken crude actions against Chinese fishermen, that is because it attempts to create an established fact about its invasion and occupation of Nansha water region and island reefs, another important reason is because of Philippines' growing military strength. Experts particularly pointed out that currently, the Philippines and the United States are conducting joint military exercises which are intended to expand its military strength and win the military initiative into its own hands.
( May 21, 2002)
