China won’t budge, continues to ignore PH on sea disputes

From the Manila Standard Today (Feb 9): China won’t budge, continues to ignore PH on sea disputes

Beijing continues to ignore Manila’s move to bring its territorial dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea before the Arbitral Tribunal, following reports that the Chinese recently built several “permanent” structures in the contested waters, aside from their continuing refusal to leave the Scarborough Shoal.

This developed as Bejing on Friday announced that it would conduct daily “administrative patrols” in the South China starting in 2014 to “better safeguard the legitimate interests of domestic fishermen”. A Foreign Affairs Department official, who asked not to be named, said that the Vietnamese government sent Manila documents confirming the report on the new structures.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei are the four Southeast Asian countries which have overlapping claims with China in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

“Based on the documents that the Vietnam government gave us, the Chinese had built large structures there. These are several stories high structures and they are not temporary structures and were built in areas that are being claimed by the Philippines,” the DFA official said.

The official described Beijing’s move as an “overt act of occupation and ownership.”

“That’s not being a nice neighbor,” the official said, referring to China.

He also urged Beijing to pull out its three vessels which had remained anchored just outside the Scarborough shoal, an area located within Philippine territory.

The vessels had ropes tied around them supposedly to prevent Philippine ships and fishermen from entering the shoal.

On January 22, the Philippines presented its case against China for international arbitration. Both countries were asked to bring their own lawyers and experts to represent them during the proceedings.

China, however, had said that it would not participate in the arbitration, as it insisted that it has “undisputable” sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea.

A few days after Manila filed for international arbitration, Beijing even announced that it would accelerate and finish the construction of infrastructure and other projects in Sansha City by 2013.
Sansha City was established by Beijing in June 2012 to administer control over the three major islands in the West Philippine Sea, namely the Paracel (Xisha), Macclesfiled Bank (Zhongsha) and Spratly (Nansha) and the more than 200 islets, sandbanks, and reefs and the islands, plus the two million square kilometers of surrounding waters.

In late 2012, Beijing released a $1.6-billion budget for the establishment of an airport, piers and other infrastructure in Sansha City.

Meanwhile, a Chinese official told Xinhua State Agency that the patrols were in response to the “challenges China experienced in 2012.”

Wu Zhuang, chief of the South China sea Fishery Bureau, said his office would take a “strong position” on fishery patrols and protection.

“A noticeable improvement will be seen in our enforcement capacity in the next two years, as the bureau has entered a period of rapid development,” Wu said.

Wu added that in 2012, they deployed China Yuzheng 302 and china Yuzheng 311 in the waters off the Mischief Reef (Meiji Reef) and Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island). The ships stayed at sea for an average of 183 days in 2012.

“Thanks to our more frequent patrols and quicker responses, no Chinese vessels engaging in normal fishery operations in the Nansha [Spratly] waters were illegally seized by foreign countries last year,” Wu said.

In a separate interview, United States on Asian Studies Center of Heritage Foundation director Walter Lohman said Beijing had chosen to ignore the arbitration because “they saw an opportunity to press their advantage”.

“They think it’s time to take possession on resource rich waters,” Lohman said.

He asaid that China knew that they were not going to win the case on the validity of the nine-dash line on their ancient maps.

“From their perspective, their best opportunity is to press their advantage physically.”

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/02/09/china-wont-budge-continues-to-ignore-ph-on-sea-disputes/