Philippines takes China to the UN over Spratlys

[Flashermac]

 

 

 

MANILA - The Philippines said Thursday it had lodged a formal protest at the United Nations over China's claims to the Spratly islands and adjacent South China Sea waters.

 

The newest controversy in the decades-old multilateral dispute centres on formal notes sent by China to the UN secretary general in 2009 outlining the basis of its claim, foreign ministry spokesman Ed Malaya said.

 

"Yes, we can confirm that the Philippines filed a note with the UN expressing its position on the nine-dotted line," he told AFP, referring to a map attached to the Chinese letter that delineated China's claim.

 

The Philippines and China, along with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, claim all or part of the Spratlys, which are believed to sit on vast mineral resources.

 

Manila last month complained that Chinese patrol boats inappropriately harassed a Philippine oil exploration vessel in disputed waters near the Spratlys.

 

The Philippines later announced plans to pursue oil exploration in the South China Sea and to upgrade a military airfield on Thitu island.

 

Thitu is the largest of the seven Spratly islands that the Philippines occupies. The Philippines claims more than 50 islands in the archipelago.

 

China has recently reiterated its exclusive claims to all the disputed areas and their adjacent waters, much of which is closer to the Philippine than Chinese.

 

A copy of the protest sent by the Philippines to the UN on April 5 and seen by AFP on Thursday said the Chinese notes were in reaction to Vietnam and Malaysia's own letters to the UN outlining their rival claims.

 

The protest said the Philippine-claimed section of the Spratlys, which Manila calls the Kalayaan island group, was an integral part of the Philippines.

 

"The claim (by China)... outside of the aforementioned geological features of the (Kalayaan island group) and their 'adjacent waters' would have no basis under international law, specifically UNCLOS," it said.

 

The term refers to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, on which the Philippines says its Spratly claim is based.

 

 

The ocean belongs to China!

[Steve]

Looking at the map one has to wonder how the f*ck China can claim to have a say in the islands but greed will find a way.

My prediction is eventually China will win. China has gotten so powerful no one is gonna fight them. We've seen them bully folks (Olympics, Nobel Prize) and win.

Not that we haven't done the same in the past. When you're a pre eminent power you sometimes play that card.

The UN will not do a thing. No one wants to openly oppose China.

[Bangkoktraveler]

I find it hard to believe also that China can lay claim.

[USVirgin]

Looking at the map one has to wonder how the f*ck China can claim to have a say in the islands but greed will find a way.

 

Looking at the map, it's a toss up between the PI and Malaysia (which has sections within Indonesia that confuse me - perhaps one of our British board members can explain).

 

[Steve]

Mayaysia, I can see. I would also ask this. What people are on the island? Are they fillipino or Malaysian? Who has been governing them?

[chuckwoww]

Sabah and Sarawak were separate Sultanates under British protection. They voted to become part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

[USVirgin]

Mayaysia, I can see. I would also ask this. What people are on the island? Are they fillipino or Malaysian? Who has been governing them?

 

Now there's a touchy question. :-;

[Pom Michael]

Don't believe any of the islands are populated.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly

[Flashermac]

There are indications that some of the islands had a small population in the past, but in recent times anyway they have been uninhabited.

 

Don't forget that the PRC fought a war with India over mountain regions that had been part of British India but the Chinese poobahs decided they wanted. Everyone keeps saying China will be the next superpower but won't be aggressive. Their record makes that suspect. They are certainly aggressive against their neighbours. They have land disputes with Japan and Vietnam as well, not to mention their treatment of such "Chinese people" as the Tibetans and the Uighurs.

 

 

 

[shygye]

I thought there were some islands claimed by China, Russia, and Japan.