Inside Philippine politics & beyond

US rejects China’s 9-dash line

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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.

Comments

  1. 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<<

    • 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 . . . :)

  2. 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

  4. 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.

  5. I have posted this comment before but I am re-posting it now to remind us of where the Pentagon or military might of US stands vis-a-vis China insofar as West Philippine Sea is concerned.

    After the “Tora, Tora, Tora” debacle in Pearl Harbor, US had awakened and has kept itself awake. Indeed, Snowden confirmed this.

    Now, US is always prepared for war against anybody who endangers its national interests. US geopolitical policies, including its assumed role as global “constable” and “resident power” in Asia, are widely known. Consequently, military strategies as a matter of course are developed to implement such policies.

    So, Pentagon does need any specific authority to prepare for war against China, North Korea, Syria, Afghanistan, etc. Pentagon has the duty to prepare for war against China. And I think such preparation began decades ago, and maybe merely intensified and refined nowadays.

    The question remains. “Will there be a war between the Philippines and China?” And the answer is a big NO because the Philippines will not and cannot wage war against China. In fact China has invaded, conquered and occupied West Philippine Sea, though partly. But no war still. Protests and complaints there are.

    The question should be “Will there be a war between China and US”. And the answer is also a big NO because China knows that US is always ready and ahead of it (China) in launching a pre-emptive attack – nuclear or otherwise.

    • 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….

      • The language used in the mutual defense pact is quite nuanced to say the least. It says that “an armed attack on either of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the Parties, or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific or on its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific”

        There is a degree of uncertainty as to whether the term jurisdiction is meant to be jure or de facto, or both, allowing conflicting signals to obfuscate the real intent.

        Well, there are a hundred ways to skin a cat and at the end of the day everyone acts based on his self-interest. When the US attacked Afghanistan which they considered an act of self-defence, the Philippines did not send any boots down there did we?

  6. 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.

  7. On June 27, 2013, in an intriguing article in the Want China Times, said “In 1982, Admiral Liu Huaqing, the former commander of the PLA navy and the mastermind of China’s modern naval strategy, said that it would be necessary for China to control the First and Second Island chains by 2010 and 2020. The PLA navy must be ready to challenge US domination over the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean in 2040. If China is able to dominate the Second Island chain seven years from now, the East China sea will become the backyard of the PLA navy.”

    The First Island chain runs from Japan’s southern tip through the Ryukyu string of islands, through Taiwan, through the Philippine islands of Luzon and Palawan, and all along the western part of Borneo. Interestingly, the First island chain runs parallel to the 9-dash line’s demarcation.

    If China succeeds in breaking through the First Island chain, the entire Western Pacific waters would become “Lake Beijing”. And in the middle of Lake Beijing is the Philippines, isolated from the rest of the world.

    But for as long as the countries in the First Island chain – mainly Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines – are allied to the US, China would be blocked from gaining a foothold in the Pacific.

    The US has shown interest in using the bases in Cubi Point and Puerto Princesa in the Philippines and airfields in Indonesia and Malaysia.

    But a series of bold moves by China is threatening the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region. With the 9-dash line, China is raising the ante. Is China’s hand strong or is she bluffing? The US is calling China’s bluff.

    • 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. “If we say yes to something we believe is wrong now, what guarantee is there that the wrong will not be further exacerbated down the line?” he said. He later added, “At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough’? Well, the world has to say it — remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War II.” – President Benigno S. Aquino III (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/world/asia/philippine-leader-urges-international-help-in-resisting-chinas-sea-claims.html)

    Related Article: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwarii/p/World-War-Ii-Munich-Agreement.htm