Associate Professor and Doctor Vu Thanh Ca, former Director of the Vietnam Institute for Sea and Island Research (Source: laodong.vn)Hanoi (VNA) - In late 2019 and early 2020 China announced its “Four-Sha”sovereignty claims over the East Sea in two diplomatic notes sent to the UN Secretary-General,with the aim of replacing the so-called “nine-dash line” that had been previouslyrejected by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
It claimed in the notesthat it holds “undeniable sovereignty” over the Dongsha (Pratas Islands), Xisha(Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago), Nansha (Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly)Archipelago), and Zhongsha (Macclesfield Bank) Archipelagos.
China said thoseare archipelagos so it can use the straight baselines to define baselines and waters,adding that these groups of islands have archipelagic waters, territorial waters,200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones, and continental shelves calculated fromthe straight baselines.
Many scholars, however,declared that China’s claims are completely contrary to international law, especiallythe 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Associate Professorand Doctor Vu Thanh Ca, former Director of the Vietnam Institute for Sea and IslandResearch, said China is not an island state that is formed by one or more archipelagos.
Therefore, he said,drawing a straight baseline to connect islands outside of the four above-mentionedarchipelagos runs counter to UNCLOS.
He took theso-called Zhongsha Archipelago (Macclesfield Bank) as an example, saying that theshoal, at a depth of at least 9.2 metres, cannot be the subject of a declarationof sovereignty under the Convention.
Ca quoted scholar andjournalist Bill Hayton from the UK’s Chatham House as saying that China made a mistakewhen translating the words “bank” or “shoal” from English to “island” and “sand-bank”in Chinese. So it then named Macclesfield Bank as “Nansha Archipelago” and thenrenamed it “Zhongsha Archipelago” in 1947.
China recently includedseveral shoals, such as Scarborough Shoal and St. Esprit Shoal, into theso-called Zhongsha, he said, stressing that the expansion is not persuadable asthese shoals are actually located quite far from the Macclesfield Bank.
The 2016 PCA rulingclarified UNCLOS’s “fit for living” concept and stated that islands in the SpratlyArchipelago are only rock islands, thus having no exclusive economic zones or continentalshelves, Ca said.
Similarly, theParacel and the Pratas Islands are rock islands without exclusive economic zonesor continental shelves.
By using the tacticof making the “Four Sha” claims (Dongsha, Xisha, Nansha, and Zhongsha), China attemptedto take advantage of UNCLOS’s terms to rewrite the Convention, he emphasised.
Combined with usingits military power to harass and its economic power to bribe countries bothinside and outside of the East Sea, China wishes to turn its illogical argumentsinto reality to monopolize the waters, Ca believes.
Such claims were rejectedby Vietnam in its own diplomatic note sent to the UN Secretary-General, inwhich it resolutely affirmed its sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction,and other legitimate rights in the East Sea. Vietnam also asserted that UNCLOS isthe only legal basis with comprehensive and thorough regulations on the territorialrights of territorial waters between Vietnam and China./.
VNA
