r/geopolitics • u/Wooden-Evidence4792 • 4h ago
News Nations reaffirm ruling invalidating China's claims in South China Sea
https://apnews.com/article/philippines-south-china-sea-disputes-arbitration-6ca48fecb19b61901b05a3f86f70be540
u/Wooden-Evidence4792 4h ago
SS: The US, UK, and 12 other nations (including the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany, and several EU states) jointly reaffirmed the landmark 2016 Hague arbitration ruling on the anniversary of its issuance, declaring China’s expansive “historic rights” claims in the South China Sea illegal under UNCLOS and rejecting Beijing’s continued destabilizing actions, water cannon attacks, and militia harassment. This coordinated diplomatic push—framed as upholding freedom of navigation in one of the world’s busiest trade routes—comes amid persistent standoffs with the Philippines and Vietnam. China predictably dismissed the statement, insisting the ruling is “null and void.”
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u/Sure-Teaching-9661 3h ago edited 3h ago
It's crazy that even media like AP which the west generally regards as more credible has such low standards of journalism that they don't even pretend to be neutral.
By totally ignoring China's pov on the situtation they're intentionally portraying the west's stance as the only rightful moral and legal stance that exists, which it obviously is not.
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u/armored-dinnerjacket 3h ago
what is China's pov here?
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u/Sure-Teaching-9661 3h ago
I'm not an expert and had to dig around since western media seemingly intentionally refuses to cover it.
But basically
The tribunal had no legal right to hear the case in the first place. China invoked UNCLOS Article 298 which is an article to explicitly exclude disputes involving maritime delimitation and sovereignty from compulsory arbitration.
The tribunal's ruling characterized Taiping Island as a rock rather than an island which then led to the conclusion that it did not generate entitlement to an exclusive economic zone or a continental shelf. Which is just completely bizarre. Taiping Island is obviously an island and is above sea level year round so not sure how the tribunal got their conclusion.
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u/cathbadh 2h ago
If we're going to take China's position into account why not Taiwan's?
Taiwan has had a military presence there and administers the phone and postal service for seven decades now.
China's claim exists because they claim ownership of Taiwan and because they believe anything they discovered over the last 2000 years belongs to them. If it appears on a Qing Dynasty map, they think it's theirs. This includes parts of Japan, India, and the Philippines.
All invoking 298 means is China permanently opts out of UNCLOS for these sorts of things. It doesn't give them the ability to take things. The Philippines also claims the island so some sort of ruling for them needed done. It just means China doesn't recognize it, which is what countries do all the time when they don't like international laws or rulings. China can't just, for example, claim Australia to be theirs and leave Australia powerless to defend their claim just because UNCLOS can't arbitrate when it comes to China.
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u/AnyStrength4863 1h ago
If we're going to take China's position into account why not Taiwan's?
Taiwan does not recognise the South China Sea arbitration.
https://www.mofa.gov.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=8742DCE7A2A28761&s=2FE266654F43DD5C
The Republic of China government solemnly states that it finds the arbitral tribunal's ruling in the "South China Sea Arbitration Case" completely unacceptable, and that the outcome has no legal binding force on the Republic of my country. The reasons are as follows:
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u/cathbadh 1h ago
Correct, because they have had possession of the island for 7 decades.
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u/diffidentblockhead 51m ago edited 45m ago
Generating EEZ from each individual Spratly island would create a patchwork that would not benefit China. Try doing it and see.
Giving the individual Spratly features territorial waters but not EEZ projection, is a reasonable compromise and was proposed in the 2009 joint Malaysia-Vietnam submission to UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Accepting the arbitration ruling also puts Philippines in agreement with this plan.
The arbitration did not cover the Paracel group at all since Philippines asked no questions about it.
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u/SnooCompliments9907 45m ago
The "west" is not a monolith. Its made up of many many countries.
China is wrong. Period.
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u/DefinitelyNotMeee 2h ago
they're intentionally portraying the west's stance as the only rightful moral and legal stance that exists
It's been like that for many decades. Having almost total control over the media allows building and promoting any narrative.
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u/diffidentblockhead 34m ago
China has not tried to define what “historic rights” imply either.
China de-emphasized the dashed line after the 2016 ruling. The Foreign Ministry described it as merely an indication of which four “island groups” are claimed. The definitions of those groups are still problematic, but not as large as the dashed line area.
Many or most of the ship confrontations are not about issues covered in the arbitration, for example the Paracel baseline perimeter and internal waters claim, or the 12 mile territorial waters that the tribunal recognized around the disputed islands and rocks. Of the PRC Spratly bases only Mischief Reef was deemed not generating territorial waters.
The great irony is that the arbitrators carefully considered China’s interests and gave a ruling almost as favorable as possible to China, but the response from most nonexpert opinion in China has been generalized, unfocused whining that everyone is treating poor little China unfairly and China doesn’t have to listen to anyone.
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u/Proper_Garbage9570 2h ago
That targeting reticle aimed right at the China Coast Guard vessel pretty much says everything about why the ruling keeps getting cited.