An international arbitration ruling on a South China Sea case brought by the Philippines has attempted to reel in China but has instead affected Taiwan, with the ruling defining the Taiwan-controlled Taiping Island in the Spratlys as a "rock" and not an "island," an article published by a Canadian think tank said recently.
The July 12 ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration on China's actions and claims in the South China Sea, including the building of artificial islands and the threat of force to control key fishing grounds, is important to the dispute's overall narrative, David Sutton said in the Aug. 12 article published on the website of the NATO Association of Canada.
"Based on standing international law, it is clear that China's actions are an affront to those agreements and understandings," said Sutton, a research analyst at the Toronto-based think tank.
In its ruling on the case brought by the Philippines against China, the court said China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to resources within the South China Sea areas falling within the "nine-dash line," and that all high-tide features in the Spratly Islands, including Itu Aba (as Taiping is also known), are legally "rocks" rather than "islands."
Declarations by the international community will not change the situation, as the court has no jurisdiction over China, Sutton said. But the ruling has affected Taiwan, which lacks legal standing as an independent state and is recognized as a part of China in court documents, he added.
Taiwan controls Taiping, the largest of the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea. The 0.51-square-kilometer island lies about 1,600 km southwest of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.
Taiping has natural vegetation, a small airfield, a dock and other facilities, including housing for coast guard personnel and medical equipment, he said. Taipei also claims that the island has several wells for fresh water and supports a small farm raising animals and crops.
Taiping thus meets the definition of an island under Article 121 of the United Nationals Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Taiwan government argues.
The convention defines an island as a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide, and that only an island can generate a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
"Given that other countries are claiming exclusive economic zones (EEZs) for similarly small islands, like the United States EEZ claims for Midway and Bakers Islands, Taiwan's claim to Taiping should not be up for dispute," Sutton said.
"The Hague's ruling that Taiping does not qualify as an island, and is thus not suitable for an exclusive economic zone, further erodes Taiwan's territorial claims and standing," he said.
Meanwhile, it is ironic that Taiwan, "a de facto state that maintains a cooperative approach to competing territorial claims, has suffered as a result of Beijing's aggressive policies of muscling competing nations out of contested waters," he wrote.
Citing as examples Taiwan's efforts to resort to peaceful resolutions to address disputes, he noted that Taiwan and the Philippines signed an agreement in November 2015 on law enforcement cooperation in fishery matters.
The agreement was promoted after hostilities resulting from the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine coast guard personnel over territorial claims between Taiwan and the Philippines in May 2013.
Another example was the signing of a fishery agreement signed between Taiwan and Japan in April 2013 in an effort to address fishing disputes in their overlapping economic waters in the East China Sea.
In his article, Sutton said the court ruling, which has been ignored by China, risks further damage by pushing Taiwan to take more assertive action to secure its claim.
"Angry Taiwanese citizens have been calling for the government to deploy the Navy to fortify the region that has been patrolled exclusively by the coast guard," he said. "At the same time, a group of Taiwanese fishermen landed on Taiping to protest the court's ruling."
Although an angry populace in Taiwan is a minor issue compared to China's heated response and subsequent further militarization of the region, "pressure by citizens to add to the mix of forces already jockeying for claims risks further exasperating regional tensions," he said.
The case was established to protect the legal rights of the Philippines under agreements of the current international legal frameworks and understandings, he said. But "it is regrettable that another, the unrecognized but abiding member, has been harmed in the same stroke," he added.
Six countries -- Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei -- claim part or all of the islands in the resource-rich South China Sea and their surrounding waters.
Focus Taiwan News Channel: http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201608170015.aspx
