Philippines rejects China’s historic sovereignty over East Sea
The Philippines rejected China’s arguments on historic sovereignty over the East Sea during the 1st round of hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands on Nov 24.
Satellite image from June 28, 2015 show China's reclamation project in Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands of Vietnam.
Hanoi (VNA) – The Philippines rejected China’s arguments on historic sovereignty over the East Sea during the first round of hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, the Netherlands on November 24.
According to the Singapore-based Straits Times, that deputy spokesperson of the Philippine President Abigail Valte said Manila’s lawyer Paul Reichler argued that China’s “purported historic rights” over the strategic waterway “do not exist” under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Another lawyer of the Philippines, Andrew Loewenstein, stressed that Beijing has failed to satisfy the requirements to establish the claims.
Loewenstein said that China had not been in “exclusive control for a long period of time” over the East Sea.
He presented to the court eight maps, including one dating back to the Ming Dynasty, that showed China’s territory had never included the areas covered by its nine-dash line.
The PCA started its hearings of the Philippines’ arbitral case against China over the disputed territory in the East Sea on November 24 which are held behind closed doors but observers from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are allowed in.
The hearings are slated to last till November 30 and the court expects to issue a decision on the case in 2016.
Previously, the PCA had rejected China’s argument that The Hague-based tribunal does not have authority to rule on the case and declared its full rights.-VNA
A workshop took place in Tokyo on July 22-23 to seek avenues to promote international cooperation for peace and stability in Asian waters and to cool tensions in the East Sea.
China’s construction of large-scale artificial islands in the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and its deployment of weaponry to these islands have brazenly violated Vietnam’s sovereignty, concerning neighbouring countries and the international community regarding security, safety and freedom of aviation and navigation in the East Sea.
The Diplomat, an online international news magazine covering politics, society and culture in the Asia- Pacific, on June 24, published an article about China’s land reclamation in the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea.
The article “The truth about ‘aggression’ in the South China Sea” was written by Nguyen Hong Thao, an Assistant Professor in Law at the National University of Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on November 24 began hearing a case filed by the Philippines contesting China’s claims to disputed areas in the East Sea.
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Satellite image from June 28, 2015 show China's reclamation project in Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands of Vietnam.
