China's ownership of Huangyan

Based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles measured from its baseline. This rule applies to the Huangyan Island as part of China’s Zhongsha Islands, over which China claims indisputable sovereignty.

Chinese astronomer Guo Shoujing, conducted a survey of the seas around the country in 1279 for Kublai Khan, and Huangyan Island was chosen as a point for surveying the South China Sea, which proves that Huangyan Island had been discovered by the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

The island and its surrounding waters have been traditional fishing areas for Chinese fishermen since ancient times, and scientists from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have conducted field surveys on the island in 1977 and 1978. China installed a stone marker reading “South China Sea Scientific Expedition” on the island in 1980, but it was illegally removed by the Philippines in 1997, when it began to challenge China’s ownership of the island.

Besides historical evidence, China bases its claim on legal grounds. Conforming to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 2 of China’s Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone stipulates that China’s territorial land includes the mainland and its offshore islands, including Taiwan and various affiliated islands such as the Diaoyu Islands.

Huangyan Island is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The island is geographically different from the Philippines archipelago and the 5,400-metre-deep Manila Trench is located in between, serving as a natural boundary separating Zhongsha Islands from the archipelago. Meanwhile, as stipulated by Articles 3 and 33 of the UN convention, China can establish a territorial breadth of 12 nautical miles and contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles measured from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured, making China’s jurisdiction over the waters off Huangyan Island indisputable.

International treaties, such as the 1898 Treaty of Paris and the 1900 Treaty of Washington, set the western limit of Philippine territory at 118 degrees East longitude. Huangyan Island, with coordinates 117 degrees and 44 minutes to 117 degrees and 48 minutes East longitude, is obviously outside the limit.

Philippine laws and regulations, including the 1935 constitution and the 1961 Republic Act No 3046, confirm the limit set by the aforementioned international treaties. Philippine maps published in 1981 and 1984 also show that Huangyan Island is not the country’s territory.

Despite this, the Philippines still claims sovereignty over the island, quibbling that the island is located within its claimed exclusive economic zone, and it has even declared its intention to unilaterally bring the dispute to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Such antics simply make the Philippines the laughingstock of the international community, as in accordance with the principle of international laws, no arbitration organisation can deal with a dispute without the parties concerned agreeing.

Furthermore, it is impossible for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to resolve the dispute over Huangyan Island, because neither China nor the Philippines has accepted the jurisdiction of the court without reservation.

China made a statutory declaration in 2006 to the UN secretary-general that it does not accept any international court or arbitration in disputes over maritime delimitation, territorial disputes and military activities. That is to say, in respect of maritime disputes related to the country’s core interests, China insists on resolving the issues by negotiating directly with the parties concerned.

However, unless the parties concerned stop complicating the issues by acting unilaterally and inviting external intervention to defend their claimed interests in the South China Sea, stand-offs in disputed waters, such as the one near Huangyan Island are likely to happen again.

To deter such provocation in the future, China should forcibly chase the Philippine vessel out of China’s territorial waters and thereafter normalise China’s jurisdiction over Huangyan Island and its surrounding waters.

 

Jin Yongming is a law scholar with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Ocean of China.