Beijing has ‘a lot of legal weapons’ to challenge Manila’s claims in South China Sea, international law expert says
- China could assert fishing rights, demand transit passages and contest baselines if disputes with Philippines escalate, according to leading scholar
- Tensions between the neighbours have continued to stew over contested reefs and closer US-Philippine defence ties
“[China has] a lot of legal weapons and has not used them yet,” said Kuenchen Fu, a specially appointed research fellow with the Belt and Road Institute at Xiamen University in southeast China. He previously served as dean of the university’s South China Sea Institute – the first research organisation at a university in mainland China to focus on the region.
“Within the archipelagic waters of the Philippines, not only in the Sulu Sea but in many other areas, Chinese fishermen have the right to fish,” said Fu, who has served as an arbitrator in various arbitration tribunals in mainland China, Taiwan and Russia.
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Beijing could also challenge the Philippines’ claim to the Kalayaan group of islands, over which Manila began asserting its sovereignty in the 1970s, said the international law expert.
He added that China could demand Manila open transit passages for Chinese aircraft and ships through the Philippines archipelago to comply with its obligations under Unclos.
The South China Sea is the site of multiple overlapping territorial claims by several countries, and the risk of military conflict in the region has grown since last year.
The vital waterway carries one-third of global shipping and is home to vast mineral, oil and gas resources. Some observers have said the South China Sea could be a more explosive flashpoint for a US-China crisis than the Taiwan Strait.
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Philippines accuses Chinese coastguard of firing water cannons at its vessels in disputed waters
Beijing and Manila, a key ally of Washington in the region, have been locked in tensions over disputed reefs in recent months, especially the Second Thomas Shoal, known as Renai Jiao in China and Ayungin Shoal in the Philippines.
The Second Thomas Shoal is located within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. But China claims sovereignty over the reef as well as the entire Spratly Islands, which it calls the Nansha Islands.
The Chinese claim over the area was declared invalid by an international arbitration court at The Hague in 2016 in a case brought by the Philippines, but Beijing rejects the decision as “null and void”.
Stronger defence ties between the US and the Philippines have also drawn China’s ire.
Philippines’ US ties risk more than links with China, expert warns
Tensions between the two neighbours have continued to stew in the new year as the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command held patrols in the South China Sea this week, coinciding with two days of joint US-Philippines military drills in the same area.
Beijing said that “muscle-flexing, provocative military activities” by Manila and Washington were not conducive to managing the situation or handling maritime disputes.
“China will continue to firmly safeguard our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Thursday.
