China expert to US, PHL: check historical evidence instead of fanning tensions

From InterAksyon (Feb 7): China expert to US, PHL: check historical evidence instead of fanning tensions

Weighing in on the latest word war over Beijing’s continuing bid to assert its territorial claim, a Chinese expert has urged the international community to respect historical evidence instead of fanning regional tensions. But President Benigno Aquino III hailed remarks by a top US diplomat that sought to rein in China and push for international arbitration.

The statement by Southeast Asian Studies researcher Li Guoqiang was in apparent reaction to statements from the United States and the Philippines challenging Beijing's claimed territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III stirred a hornet’s nest in a recent interview with The New York Times, where he likened Beijing’s expansionist bent to the successful bid of Adolf Hitler to annex the Sudetenland as the West failed to come to Czekoslovakia’s defense in 1938.

In a statement posted in state-owned China Daily news website, Li Guoqiang maintained that China's claim over the disputed sea can be traced back to as far as 2,000 years.

Top US diplomat weighs in on issue

On Wednesday, Washington had urged Beijing to clarify or adjust its claim in the South China Sea, calling for a peaceful solution to what is widely seen as one of Asia's growing flashpoints.

Danny Russel, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, challenged Beijing’s so-called “nine-dash line” that outlines its territorial claims over much of the South China Sea. The Philippines is protesting this nine-dash line as an “excessive” claim and such protest anchors the complaint Manila filed against Beijing in the United Nations arbitral tribunal last year.

Russel said that maritime claims under international law needed to be based on land features. “Any Chinese claim to maritime rights not based on claimed land features would be inconsistent with international law,” Russel told a congressional panel this week.

“China could highlight its respect for international law by clarifying or adjusting its claim to bring it into accordance with international law of the sea,” he said.

Aquino welcomes US statement

In Manila, President Benigno S. Aquino III on Friday welcomed the statement of  top US diplomat Russel calling on China to clarify or adjust its territorial claims in the South China Sea in accordance with international law.

“The statement of America, of Assistant Secretary of State (Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs) is welcome.

But at the end of the day, [all parties in this dispute, and all public for a that we are aware of, all speak of] adherence to international law," the Chief Executive said, speaking partly in Filipino to reporters after gracing the Philippine Army Change of Command Ceremony in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

The President also reiterated the Philippine's commitment for a peaceful solution to maritime dispute.

"That is all we aspire for…that all of us will follow international law, especially those that we all freely entered into like UNCLOS - the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea," the President stressed.

"Nobody forced any of us to be a signatory there. China and the Philippines are signatories to the same. And we are hoping that we all live up to the commitments expressed in a treaty such as that," he said.

Support for UN filing

The US official likewise backed the Philippines’ right to take its case to a UN body in early 2013, over China’s continuing protest, adding that such filing by Manila was vital to efforts to find a “peaceful, non-coercive” solution.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is scheduled to submit its arguments on March 30, 2013 to the UN-backed International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) regarding the disputes with China over the West Philippine Sea—or Manila’s tag for the South China Sea.

March 30 is the deadline for the Philippines to submit its so-called Memorial, a document containing the legal basis of its arbitration case against China, to the five-member arbitral tribunal in The Hague.

The Memorial is being prepared by the Philippines' legal panel led by Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza.

The DFA said it expects the tribunal to decide on the jurisdiction and merits of the case, especially on why Manila wants the nine-dash line claim by Beijing invalidated and declared illegal as far as international law, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), is concerned.

The Philippines had invited China to join the arbitral proceedings on January 22 last year. The arbitration case was filed to clearly delineate the extent of China's and the Philippines' claims in the disputed region.

Manila wants the five-member tribunal to void Beijing's "encompassing" nine-dash line claim, a sweeping arc covering 90 percent of the entire region, and reaching into the coastal provinces of other claimants.

The resource-rich West Philippine Sea, believed to sit atop oil and natural reserves, is being claimed in whole by China, and in part by the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/80311/china-expert-to-us-phl-check-historical-evidence-instead-of-fanning-tensions