RP blasts China over new fishing law

From the Daily Tribune (Jan 11): RP blasts China over new fishing law

Beijing fires back, says fishing rule adheres to international law

The Philippines yesterday denounced a new Chinese law that Manila says compels foreign vessels to seek a permit from Chinese regional authorities for activities in large areas of the South China Sea.

“We have requested China to immediately clarify the new fisheries law issued by the Hainan Provincial People’s Congress,” the Filipino foreign affairs department said in a statement. “We are gravely concerned by this new regulation that would require foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval from Chinese regional authorities before fishing or surveying in a large portion of the South China Sea.”

Beijing also yesterday rejected US criticism of a measure requiring foreign fishing vessels to secure permission to enter much of the South China Sea which it claims almost in its entirety.

The rule — which comes as tensions have escalated over overlapping claims with the Philippines, Vietnam and other nations — was called “provocative” by the US.

But it is largely identical to an existing measure from 2004, and reports said similar rules had also been declared in 1998 and 1993.

As well as the South China Sea dispute, Beijing is embroiled in a bitter row with Japan over small uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Beijing insisted the latest move was aimed at protecting fishing resources.

“We express dissatisfaction and opposition” to the US reaction, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing.

“If someone insists on calling technical revisions to a local fishing regulation that has already been implemented for years a matter of regional tension, a threat to regional stability, then all I can say is, this is either a lack of basic common sense or some ulterior motive.”

The measure took effect last week after being passed in November by China’s southern island province of Hainan, and echoed previous rules making the same demand.

It states that foreign fishing vessels and individuals entering Hainan-administered waters “should obtain permission from the relevant authority”.

The rule applies to two million square kilometers of waters covered by Hainan, the official Xinhua news agency reported last month, without specifying the exact area or potential enforcement measures.

But that total area accounts for a large part of the South China Sea, portions of which are also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Thursday called the move a “provocative and potentially dangerous act”.

The Philippines’ foreign department said in a statement on Friday it was “gravely concerned” by the move.

Separately, China is facing growing tensions with fellow Asian giant Japan over islands in the East China Sea that have raised concerns of an unintended conflict.
China’s declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over an area covering the disputed islands triggered an international furor in November.

The ADIZ requires foreign aircraft to declare their intentions and maintain communications with Chinese authorities or face unspecified “defensive emergency measures.”

In a press briefing Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Raul Hernandez stressed that China’s fishing rule is a “gross violation of international law, pointing out that China’s new fisheries regulation exercising control over a vast area of the disputed South China Sea, takes over sovereignty of the high seas, to which no state can be subjected.

Hernandez said China;s fishing rule “escalates tensions, unnecessarily complicates the situation in the South China Sea and threatens the peace and stability of the region.”

“We are gravely concerned by this new regulation that would require foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval from Chinese regional authorities before fishing or surveying in a large portion of the South China Sea,” Hernandez said, apart from saying that China is violating of the spirit of a non-binding Code of Conduct of 2001, signed by China together with Asean nations calling on all claimants to the South China sea to exercise restraint.

Press reports said the law was passed last year and took effect on Jan. 1. Hernandez said the DFA has filed a diplomatic complaint.

China claims almost all the South China Sea but the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims.

Tensions between the Philippines and China have risen in recent years as Beijing becomes more aggressive in asserting its claims.

Earlier this year Manila took Beijing to a United Nations tribunal over the contested Scarborough Shoal, which has been controlled by Chinese government vessels since last year.

“This new law reinforces China’s expansive claim under the 9-dash line,” the DFA alleged Friday, referring to China’s delineation of the extent of its maritime territorial claim.

“This development escalates tensions, unnecessarily complicates the situation in the South China Sea, and threatens the peace and stability of the region,” the statement read.

The statement said the Philippines was not the only country to be affected by the new Hainan regulations.

“These regulations seriously violate the freedom of navigation and the right to fish of all states in the high seas, as provided for under UNCLOS (the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea),” it said.

“Under customary international law, no state can subject the high seas to its sovereignty.”

China’s beefing up of its powers in the disputed Kalayaan Islands Group (KIGs) or the Spratlys in the West Philippine Sea will only fuel more tension among the claimant-countries, a local official in Palawan said yesterday.

Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon of Kalayaan town said that China’s planned increase police powers, particularly on fishing activities in the KIGs, is difficult to enforce since some, if not majority, of the contested islets in the area are populated and well-developed by occupant-countries.

“They (Chinese) will have difficulty imposing that because there are many claimant-countries, then their (claimants) islets in the Spratlys are populated,” said Bito-onon.
Bito-onon, cited the well-developed islets being occupied by Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia in the Spratlys.

Earlier reports said that China is planning to increase police powers in the South China Sea that would require foreign fishermen to seek permission from Beijing to operate along the disputed territory.

The move came after Beijing’s implementation of its air defense identification zone last November over East China Sea or along its borders with Japan and South Korea. The Adiz was met with criticisms from the United States, South Korea and Japan as they responded by sending flights within the Adiz.

“It could only agitate or increase the tension,” said Bito-onon.

On the other hand, the Kalayaan mayor noted that China’s move could also serve as “attention catcher” that could spark renewed interest in the dispute which could lead to early resolution of the issue.

“On the other side, if there is no attention catcher, there would be delays (on the resolution of the conflict). Who knows, this could lead to fast-tracking the resolution,” said Bito-onon.

The Department of National Defense (DND) on Thursday vowed to protect the country’s maritime resources amid reports of China’s renewed efforts to beef up powers in the disputed South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea.

The Philippines and China are entangled in a tense dispute over the Kalayaan Islands Group or the Spratlys in the West Philippine Sea.

The Department of Foreign Affairs last year filed a formal complaint against China over its incursion over Philippine-claimed areas in the KIGs before the International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas. Beijing, however, refused to participate in the proceedings.

China has maintained its presence in the Philippine-occupied Ayungin Shoal in Palawan since 2012 and in Panatag (Scarborugh) Shoal off Masinloc, Zambales.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/rp-blasts-china-over-new-fishing-law