A few days ago, the Philippine Senate passed the so-called "Maritime Zone Act", which formally established the Philippines' "sovereignty" over islands and reefs in the South China Sea in the form of domestic law, and also praised the results of the 2016 South China Sea arbitration. The bill was passed by the Philippine House of Representatives at the end of last year, and the Philippine Senate has now passed this evil law, which is an extension of the dispute between China and the Philippines over islands and reefs in the South China Sea last year.
The core content of the bill is to confirm that the Philippines has called "all islands and reefs in the exclusive economic zone, and even artificial islands, are Philippine territory." In the words of the Philippines**, the core goal of the bill is to further clarify the "maritime boundaries" and provide a "legal basis" for the Philippines' jurisdiction over the waters of the Spratly Islands. The Philippine side undoubtedly tries to include most of the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal, Ren'ai Jiao and Mischief Island, in the form of domestic law.
In this regard, our spokesperson Mao Ning hit back and reiterated China's five-point position.
First, China's sovereignty and jurisdiction over the South China Sea are a product of historical development, have sufficient legal basis, and are in line with international law, including the International Convention on the Law of the Sea. Second, the composition of the Philippines' national territory is itself determined by a series of legal documents, but in these legal documents, there is no legal document that indicates that the scope of Philippine sovereignty includes the Nansha Islands. Third, the so-called "South China Sea Arbitration" initiated by the Philippines itself was not approved by China, and the arbitration itself violated the International Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Fourth, the Philippines' so-called "Maritime Zone Act" is based on the illegal "South China Sea Arbitration" and attempts to legitimize the Philippines' claims in the South China Sea through domestic law, which itself violates the UN Charter and the norms of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. Fifth, China hopes that the Philippines will respect China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, stop taking any unilateral matters that escalate disputes, return to dialogue with China to resolve issues, and jointly maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Since 2013, the Philippines, with the support of the United States, has been trying to legalize China's illegally occupied islands and reefs in the South China Sea, and on this precondition, the so-called "South China Sea Arbitration Case" has been created. But in fact, this ruling, which was made without the consent of a third party, violated the norms of international law procedurally, and was entirely an international farce directed and staged by the Philippines with the cooperation of the United States.
Since the 50s of the last century, the Philippines has coveted China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea, and has used different methods to invade and occupy China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea at different times, including the so-called civil exploration, grounding, abuse of maritime dispute mechanisms, and now using domestic law to break through the shackles of international law. However, without exception, all these measures have avoided the fact that the Philippines has used illegal means to occupy China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
In addition, the Philippine Congress's passage of this evil law is essentially a strong provocation against China. BecauseThe bill emphasizes the sovereignty and jurisdictional rights and interests of the Philippines based on the "exclusive economic zone", which means that with the entry into force of the bill, the entire Spratly Islands will become the target of the Philippines' "legitimate occupation", which will lead to the failure of the crisis management mechanism between China and the Philippines, and the space for compromise and peace talks between the two sides will be compressed.
Specifically, the Philippines will continue to expand the scope of provocations in the future, such as not only Ren'ai Jiao and Scarborough Shoal, but also artificial islands and reefs such as Mischief Island. In addition, it is also possible that the Philippines will follow the example of the 2016 South China Sea arbitration and repeat the so-called "international litigation" based on domestic law. The Philippines is already planning this, such as slandering and hyping Chinese fishermen for destroying coral reefs in the Spratly Islands and using so-called cyanide for fishing.
To sum up, the core purpose of the Philippine Congress passing this bill is to pave the way for future disputes with China over islands and reefs. On the one hand, the Philippines has been using foreign media to exaggerate the dispute between China and the Philippines on islands and reefs, prompting the domestic political forces in the Philippines to reach a consensus, and even deliberately emphasizing the urgency of strengthening control over islands and reefs in the South China Sea at the social level, so as to ultimately achieve the goal of accelerating the realization of sovereignty over islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
On the other hand, the Philippines has maintained a tough stance on the South China Sea issue at the law enforcement and military levels to highlight the importance of the Philippine military and coast guard in the South China Sea disputes, so as to further serve its own political interests. In other words, now the Philippines and the military are advocating to remain tough on the South China Sea issue, which will further promote tension and heating up in the South China Sea.
However, it should be pointed out that last month, Philippine Foreign Minister Manaro said that the outside world should not recognize the dispute between China and the Philippines as an issue between China and the United States, because the Philippines also has its own legitimate rights and interests to protect. This also reflects the Philippines' intention to partially cut off from the United States and avoid being completely tied to the chariot by the United States, because after all, the Philippines only wants to use the power of the United States to confront China in the dispute over islands and reefs in the South China Sea, and not really be a pawn who only thinks about the interests of the United States.
It's just that with the heating up of the situation in the South China Sea and the greater involvement of the United States, can the Philippines withstand not being controlled by the United States? Don't think too highly of yourself at this point.