BREAKING NEWS
“The United States for the first time has explicitly rejected the U-shaped, nine-dash line that China uses to assert sovereignty over nearly the whole South China Sea, experts say, strengthening the position of rival claimants and setting the stage for what could be an international legal showdown with Beijing,” according to journalist Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
Ordinarily, I would hesitate to believe a report about Washington goings-on bylined by someone from Radio Free Asia.
But this particular piece was written by my friend Parameswaran Ponnudurai, the former Agence France Presse bureau chief in Manila.
AFP then assigned Param to cover Washington for many years. He is now Radio Free Asia’s English News Director.
So I do know that Param has insider knowledge of how Washington works.
In this piece, Param quotes the testimony of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs last week.
Then Param goes on to quote Jeffrey Bader, US President Barack Obama’s former chief adviser on China, as saying two significant observations:
One – “for the first time, the United States government has come out publicly with an explicit statement that the so-called ‘nine-dash line’… is contrary to international law.
Two- “By explicitly rejecting the nine-dash line, Assistant Secretary Russel and the administration have drawn our own line in the right place.”
To read the rest of Param’s report, please click on this link.
I would have to note, though, that the United States is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
However, China is.
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23 Comments on "US rejects China’s 9-dash line"
Ayungin Reef: A Game of Shark and Minnow – Who Will Win Control of the South China Sea? – NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/10/27/south-china-sea/
Related Article: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwarii/p/World-War-Ii-Munich-Agreement.htm
This confirms that our President is on the right track.
I only wish that the VP will not come out with his opinion criticizing this article. But who knows? The deeper to sink his presidential ambitions.
Let us continue to support and applaud our hard-working President. And pray that we get a successor as patriotic as he is.
comment posted on CdeQ’s column today re same subject:
parengtony • 2 hours ago
China’s bullying is really just all about domestic politics, plain and simple. The dictatorial communist party’s only real option to maintain its iron grip on power is to engage in some form of serious but calibrated international conflict which, as history has repeatedly shown, guarantees public support for the rulers. The pie in the sky of this strategy, where successful, is the prospect of greater economic and geopolitical dominance. Limitless greed.
Philippines and China both signed the UNCLOS. China must stop this kind attitude to preserve peace. China’s superiority attitude is alarmingly similar to the 1930’s Germany. Remember in the game of war, everybody will lose. I hope they change their mind before we all found that the earth is six feet high.
Source: “China Raises the Ante”, Global Balita by Perry Diaz 7/31/13)
ang ginagawa ng Tsina ay isang prelude para masakop ang buong west Phl seas dahil mayaman sa oil and gas ang ating karagatan. naglalaway na silang mahigop ang yaman sa ilalim ng ating karagatan…
China is angered at PNoy’s reference to them as Hitler-like annexation of Sudetenland but what they’re doing now and planning to do in South China Sea is similar to the expansionist Axis powers during WW2 composed of Berlin-Rome-Tokyo alliance.
Pinablotter na natin sa UN ang ginagawa ng China sa Panatag, doon na lang sila magpaliwanag sa presinto. Dalhin nila yun mapa nila kung gusto nila.
Correction: Pentagon does not need specific authority . . .
so no war is imminent. i hope this is so.
i do believed west Phl sea has long been occupied partly by china.
we can’t do anything but lodge a protest…
something like a cold war between China and US began years ago, when chinese start to upgrade their naval power (1st. aircraft carrier) and the american plan to have a 60/40 naval presence in the pacific/atlantic. i hope i’m wrong, but the possibility of war with china is always present unless they do away with their empire building attitude.
If China won’t stop poking at Japan, they risk losing not only their ridiculous claims but everything.
US will not go to war for us but they will do it for Japan.
I agree @ Saltychief…… US value the Japanese first than we are…Japanese technolgy coupled with dedication and honesty make them a stronger ally than the Philipppines, a Filipinos who is returning to POWER the SON and CRONIES of the late Pres. Marcos into the national level…. Kakahiya tayo nyan… Kahit mamatay tao o magnanakaw ..ibinoboto natin para maging liderato sa mga sangay ng ating gobyerno…. What a shame… Gising na po uli tayo….
U.S. General Carlisle rapped the Philippines and Japan for stirring up trouble with criticisms of China, then he went on to criticize China’s rumored air defense zone covering the entire South China and West Philippine Sea. China proceeded to call the general “irresponsible” . . . which goes to show that China is an equal opportunity thug, and totally stupid to boot.
You don’t spit into the wind and you don’t tug on superman’s cape.
that gen carlisle is confused.
his word vis-a-vis his word.
9 – dash line rests on shaky grounds, as China’s pointing to ” ample facts and evidences” about the area remains ambiguous on what these are. They can make old maps say what they want to say, just like the world maps they sold in our National Bookstore
Uncle Sam sees all kinds of business on this West Phil issue….just think about $ soaring higher…
….in return freedom and liberty…thats how US was, now and then…
…Alhamdullilah…Alleluyah….
…God made them powerful for various reasons…two of them>>FREEDOM and LEBERTY<<
Liberty he he he he
I see it a little different. America got powerful because she trusted her people with freedom and liberty, and those people have worked like crazy to enrich themselves honestly and honorably under that umbrella. From that effort, power emerged. God just gave Thomas Jefferson and a few other people the ability to think well.
But I quibble . . . :)