U.S. warns China against attack on Philippine forces

THE UNITED States reaffirmed its strong support to Manila against any aggression in the South China Sea, saying, that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.

U.S. Navy photos show USS Tulsa (LCS 16) and crewmen while conducting maritime operations in the Philippine Sea.

 

Beijing claims territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, including its islands, reefs, and waters; and Chinese militias and China Coast Guards have repeatedly harassed Filipino fishermen and vessels, and encroached inside Philippine territories.

Presidents Rodrigo Duterte and Xi Jinping

 

But despite all of these incidents, President Rodrigo Duterte has downplayed the incidents and even defended China and President Xi Jinping. And one time said: “I simply love Xi Jinping. He understands my problem and he’s willing to help. And I’d like to say, thank you, China.”

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken

However, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has flatly rejected China’s claims and said the freedom of the seas is an enduring interest of all nations and is vital to global peace and prosperity.  He said the international community has long benefited from the rules-based maritime order, where international law, as reflected in the UN Law of the Sea Convention, sets out the legal framework for all activities in the oceans and seas. 

 

“This body of international law forms the basis for national, regional, and global action and cooperation in the maritime sector and is vital to ensuring the free flow of global commerce. Nowhere is the rules-based maritime order under greater threat than in the South China Sea.  The People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to coerce and intimidate Southeast Asian coastal states, threatening freedom of navigation in this critical global throughway,” Blinken said.

 

Five years ago, an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention delivered a unanimous and enduring decision firmly rejecting Beijing’s expansive South China Sea maritime claims as having no basis in international law. 

 

The Tribunal stated that China has no lawful claim to the area determined by the Arbitral Tribunal to be part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. 

 

“The United States reaffirms its July 13, 2020 policy regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea.  We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” Blinken said, referring to the statement made by his predecessor, Michael Pompeo, last year.

 

Blinken called on China to abide by its obligations under international law, cease its provocative behavior, and take steps to reassure the international community that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order that respects the rights of all countries, big and small. 

Pompeo said Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them. “In the South China Sea, we seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law, maintain the unimpeded flow of commerce, and oppose any attempt to use coercion or force to settle disputes. We share these deep and abiding interests with our many allies and partners who have long endorsed a rules-based international order,” he said in a statement released on July 13, 2020.

“These shared interests have come under unprecedented threat from the People’s Republic of China. Beijing uses intimidation to undermine the sovereign rights of Southeast Asian coastal states in the South China Sea, bully them out of offshore resources, assert unilateral dominion, and replace international law with “might makes right.” Beijing’s approach has been clear for years. In 2010, then-PRC Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his ASEAN counterparts that “China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact.” The PRC’s predatory world view has no place in the 21st century,” Pompeo further said.

He said China has no legal grounds to unilaterally impose its will on the region. “Beijing has offered no coherent legal basis for its “Nine-Dashed Line” claim in the South China Sea since formally announcing it in 2009. In a unanimous decision on July 12, 2016, an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention – to which the PRC is a state party – rejected the PRC’s maritime claims as having no basis in international law. The Tribunal sided squarely with the Philippines, which brought the arbitration case, on almost all claims,” he said.

Pompeo said as the United States previously stated, and as specifically provided in the Convention, the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision is final and legally binding on both parties.

“We are aligning the U.S. position on the PRC’s maritime claims in the South China Sea with the Tribunal’s decision. Specifically:

·    - The PRC cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim – including any Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims derived from Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands – vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippines’ EEZ or on its continental shelf. Beijing’s harassment of Philippine fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral PRC actions to exploit those resources. In line with the Tribunal’s legally binding decision, the PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to Mischief Reef or Second Thomas Shoal, both of which fall fully under the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial or maritime claims generated from these features.

·    -   As Beijing has failed to put forth a lawful, coherent maritime claim in the South China Sea, the United States rejects any PRC claim to waters beyond a 12-nautical mile territorial sea derived from islands it claims in the Spratly Islands (without prejudice to other states’ sovereignty claims over such islands). As such, the United States rejects any PRC maritime claim in the waters surrounding Vanguard Bank (off Vietnam), Luconia Shoals (off Malaysia), waters in Brunei’s EEZ, and Natuna Besar (off Indonesia). Any PRC action to harass other states’ fishing or hydrocarbon development in these waters – or to carry out such activities unilaterally – is unlawful.

·    -    The PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to (or derived from) James Shoal, an entirely submerged feature only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and some 1,000 nautical miles from China’s coast. James Shoal is often cited in PRC propaganda as the “southernmost territory of China.” International law is clear: An underwater feature like James Shoal cannot be claimed by any state and is incapable of generating maritime zones. James Shoal (roughly 20 meters below the surface) is not and never was PRC territory, nor can Beijing assert any lawful maritime rights from it.”

Pompeo said the world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. He said America stands with its Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law. “We stand with the international community in defense of freedom of the seas and respect for sovereignty and reject any push to impose “might makes right” in the South China Sea or the wider region,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)

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