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Legal and political implications The Republic of Philippines. The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China. 2016 case

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Gruszczyński K. J.

Społeczeństwo i Edukacja. Międzynarodowe Studia Humanistyczne

2016

issue 4(23)

45-65

The article analyzes The Philippines v. China arbitration case and its geopolitical implications for further bilateral relations between USA and China. Additionally, it examines the viewpoints of Chinese leaders. Term arbitration refers to a process in which a party submits a “dispute” to an unbiased, independent third party. Its main goal is to settle and conclude the disputes presented. The Permanent Court of Arbitration is an intergovernmental organization established in 1899 that designates arbitral tribunals to resolve disputes between and among nations. It is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and currently presides over the arbitration case. Philippines brought the case before the tribunal to dispute China’s claim of “indisputable sovereignty” over almost the entire South China sea through its “nine-dash line” claim. The five arbitrators were assigned to the Judge Thomas A. Mensah (President), Judge Jean-Pierre Cot, Judge Stanislaw Pawlak, Professor Alfred H. Soons, and Judge Rüdiger Wolfrum. It will be argued that China has had a bad relationship with all neighbors since 1974, when China used force against South Vietnam in the South China Sea in order to recapture the Paracel Islands and against a unified Vietnam in 1988 to seize Johnson Reef and five more features, massacring a party of Vietnamese flag-bearers. In 1994, China seized Mischief Reef unobserved and it took months before the world noticed. Until then, China was the only claimant to have no permanent presence in the area. There are already clear signs that China is using its military power to rebuke the arbitration. Admiral Wu Shengli, the Commander of the Chinese navy, just hosted the US Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, at the Chinese Navy Headquarters on July 18 2016, following the successful participation of Chinese warships in the major US RIMPAC exercise in the Pacific. He made clear that the militarization of China’s artificial islands will continue so that their defense corresponds to the “level of threats”. After a PLA Air Force patrol close to Scarborough Shoal made the headlines of most Chinese newspapers yesterday, a military spokesman announced that air patrols would become a regular occurrence now. The Tribunal issued its Award on July 16 2016 after several months of hearings and submission of documents. China was absent throughout the proceedings, refusing to recognize the case. The Tribunal concluded that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line The Spratly Islands and its many reefs are being claimed by China under its “nine-dash line” claim that covers nearly the entire South China Sea including parts of the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (hereafter referred to as EEZ). China insisted it has historic rights in asserting its ownership of the region believed to be rich in natural gas resources and also a vital trade route for international cargo ships The 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff was one of the factors that prompted the Philippines to file a case against China. Tensions between the two countries escalated when Chinese surveillance ships prevented Philippine authorities from apprehending Chinese vessels found poaching endangered Philippine marine species at the shoal. The dispute over maritime features in the South China Sea has been ongoing for decades prior and involved other Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia. On January 23, 2013, the Philippine government (hereafter referred to as Manila) announced that it had initiated an arbitration case against the People’s Republic of China in accordance with the dispute settlement provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning a range of issues relevant to the ongoing sovereignty dispute in the South China Sea between the two nations.Manila’s case was submitted for arbitration to a five-judge panel formed under the “Settlement of Disputes” process contained in Part XV of UNCLOS and hosted by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is an international treaty that defines the limits of a nation’s maritime sovereignty claims. This convention was ratified by both the Philippines and China. Under its provisions, areas within 200 nm from the country’s baselines would be part of the EEZ. UNCLOS states three basic maritime features: Islands under the sovereignty of a country are entitled to a 12 nm (approximately 22 kilometers) territorial sea and a 200 nm (approximately 370 km) exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The state may exclude foreign entities within its territorial sea and has the sole right to exploit resources found within the EEZ Since the initiation of the arbitration case, China has conducted several massive reclamation projects to turn submerged reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military structures and equipment. The conclusion offers general thoughts on the larger implications of the findings for the management of maritime disputes involving China and especially U. S.-China security relations.

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1 Społeczeństwo i Edukacja. Międzynarodowe Studia Humanistyczne

1 Gruszczyński K. J.

1 2016

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Legal and political implications The Republic of Philippines. The Republic of Philippines v. The People's Republic of China. 2016 case