Ancient Malays had crossed the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific millenniums before China started mapping its surrounding waters. With that fact, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio prefaced a lecture last June at De La Salle University on China’s false historical claims over the South China Sea. “Historical Facts, Lies, and Rights” […]
The South China Sea (SCS) has emerged as one of the major flashpoints with a host of countries making claims to parts or the whole of the area. The reason behind this dispute is because of the results of a report some years ago that testified that the area contains huge amounts of oil and […]
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday reaffirmed their sovereignty over four island groups in the South China Sea, while urging neighboring countries and territories involved in territorial disputes in the area to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiation. From the perspective of history, geography and international law, the Spratly Islands, as well as […]
The South China Sea is where China’s ambitions meet Asian nervousness and American power. In its waters China has abandoned any pretence of “peaceful rise” in favour of gunboat diplomacy. Armed Chinese Coastguard ships have rammed their Vietnamese rivals, blockaded Philippine outposts, disrupted Malaysian oil surveys and threatened Indonesian vessels which protect the nation’s fisheries. […]
China’s leaders may yet relive Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about vanity, featuring an unclad emperor who couldn’t see his own nakedness, thanks to Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. In a diligently researched 62-page treatise titled “Historical facts, Historical Lies, and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio called China’s claim to the […]
VietNamNet Bridge – At several international seminars recently, some senior officials, generals, diplomats and scholars of China claimed that the oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 is positioned within the exclusive economic zone of Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago of China. However, the claim is completely groundless, as many researchers have pointed out. A Chinese vessel […]
MANILA, Philippines — The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the answer to settle maritime disputes over the South China Sea, an Indonesian official said. Arif Havas Oegroseno, Indonesian Ambassador to the European Union, said that rival claimants correctly resorting to UNCLOS is a lesson from successful settlement of the […]
The Spratly Islands—not so long ago known primarily as a rich fishing ground—have turned into an international flashpoint as Chinese leaders insist with increasing truculence that the islands, rocks, and reefs have been, in the words of Premier Wen Jiabao, “China’s historical territory since ancient times.” Normally, the overlapping territorial claims to sovereignty and maritime […]
On 2 May 2014, a Chinese company’s HYSY 981 drilling rig started its drilling operation inside the contiguous zone of China’s Xisha Islands (see Annex 1/5 for the locations of operation) for the purpose of oil and gas exploration. With the first phase of the operation completed, the second phase began on 27 May. The […]
Using China’s very own ancient maps, Justice Antonio T. Carpio debunked the Asian superpower’s ownership claims of almost the whole of South China Sea based on “historical facts.” In lecture at De La Salle University “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio took up China’s invitation to look at […]