20 July 2016
By Ben Doherty
America will “ensure the sea lanes are secure, (click here) and the skies remain open” in the Pacific, the US vice-president, Joe Biden, has vowed in a pointed riposte to Chinese territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.
China shot itself in the foot and now is complaining with BIG GUNS rather than lawyers. China's posture is brinkmanship. Then the West wonders why North Korea is such a disaster rather than a country moving toward an economy that supports its people.
A popularity campaign by China doesn't reach The Hague by osmosis. This is pure arrogance by China.
...But taking a step back (click here) after reviewing the award, perhaps I should not have been surprised. China’s legal arguments for maritime rights in the South China Sea were always weak since the Chinese mainland is much farther away than any of its neighbors. China exacerbated these weaknesses by refusing to participate in the tribunal in any way, and then launching a global public relations campaign that dramatically heightened the award’s significance in the eyes of the global media....
By Ben Doherty
America will “ensure the sea lanes are secure, (click here) and the skies remain open” in the Pacific, the US vice-president, Joe Biden, has vowed in a pointed riposte to Chinese territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.
In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech in Sydney on Wednesday, Biden paid tribute to the US-Australian alliance, describing it as “a partnership that reminds us what is best in ourselves”.
But his most pointed remarks were clearly directed towards China, which has been building and weaponising artificial islands in the South China Sea in an effort to exclusively claim the surrounding maritime territory as its own.
China claims its control of the waters – inside the so-called nine-dash line – dates back to ancient times, marked in historic 600-year-old mariners’ books. But last week in The Hague the permanent court of arbitration ruled there was no legal basis for China’s historic claim, a decision China has furiously rejected....
The Pacific has border issues and tensions that go back in time to the dark ages.
7 July 2016
By Oliver Holmes and Tom Phillips
The Pacific has border issues and tensions that go back in time to the dark ages.
By Oliver Holmes and Tom Phillips
...The lead up 7(click here) to the ruling was fraught. China’s foreign minister called the US secretary of state, John Kerry, by telephone last week and warned against moves that infringe on China’s sovereignty. And Beijing conducted military drills,deploying at least two guided missile destroyers and a missile frigate.
Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) thinktank in Washington, said a ruling that questioned or rejected China’s “nine-dash line” would not invalidate all of Beijing’s claims to land or maritime zones in the South China Sea. “[But] it would really limit the amount of water that the Chinese could have any legal sovereignty claim to....
This isn't about sovereignty. No one is threatening China's sovereignty. This is about ancient arguments that should have died with it's ancestors. This is as bad as watching a Republican 17 person debate for the presidency. This is picking a fight that should not exist in the first place.
China shot itself in the foot and now is complaining with BIG GUNS rather than lawyers. China's posture is brinkmanship. Then the West wonders why North Korea is such a disaster rather than a country moving toward an economy that supports its people.
A popularity campaign by China doesn't reach The Hague by osmosis. This is pure arrogance by China.
17 July 2016
By Julian Ku
China asserts sovereignty over maritime areas that are also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Japan.
...But taking a step back (click here) after reviewing the award, perhaps I should not have been surprised. China’s legal arguments for maritime rights in the South China Sea were always weak since the Chinese mainland is much farther away than any of its neighbors. China exacerbated these weaknesses by refusing to participate in the tribunal in any way, and then launching a global public relations campaign that dramatically heightened the award’s significance in the eyes of the global media....
