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Published Thursday, September 3, 2020
International News
The U.S. government rejects China's
claims in the South China Sea
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff and wire services
The United States is standing with its Southeast Asian partners and allies to reject the People’s Republic of China’s, so-called PRC, unlawful claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. government said in a statement.
In July, the U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, said most of the PRC’s maritime claims are “completely unlawful” and represent an “unprecedented threat” to freedom of the seas in the region.
“Beijing uses intimidation to undermine the sovereign rights of Southeast Asian coastal states in the South China Sea, bully them out of offshore resources, assert unilateral dominion, and replace international law with ‘might makes right,” Pompeo said. “The PRC’s predatory world view has no place in the 21st century.”
According to the U.S. government, for years, the PRC has made sweeping and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, threatening fishing and other offshore resources. Millions of people depend on these waters for their food and livelihoods.
"In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal found that China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea are inconsistent with the Law of the Sea Convention. Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines have protested the PRC’s advances in the region, including the sinking of fishing boats," the U.S. government said in its statement.
The U.S. is strengthening its stance against China’s maritime claims, backing the tribunal’s unanimous July 12, 2016, decision finding that those claims have no basis in international law. The tribunal was formed under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, to which the PRC is a party.
The U.S. policy states the PRC cannot lawfully claim waters around certain islands and reefs, including areas the tribunal deemed to be in the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone or on its continental shelf.
The policy also rejects PRC claims around certain maritime features off the coasts of Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, and in Brunei’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo said. “America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 26, the U.S. imposed sanctions on 24 Chinese companies and several people who allegedly participated in building and militarizing disputed artificial islands in the South China Sea.
The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement the companies played a “role in helping the Chinese military” with the construction project, while U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a separate announcement that it was placing visa restrictions on individuals “responsible” or “complicit” in the project.
“Since 2013, the PRC has used its state-owned enterprises to dredge and reclaim more than 3,000 acres on disputed features in the South China Sea, destabilizing the region, trampling on the sovereign rights of its neighbors, and causing untold environmental devastation,” Pompeo said.
The U.S. action follows a policy update in July that explicitly called out Beijing’s “unlawful maritime claims” in the South China Sea.
According to a Voice of America Journal (VOA) report, the actions are the latest steps the U.S. has taken against China for its military buildup on territory in the South China Sea, where sovereignty is claimed by several countries.
“In doing this, we have various aims, including of course to impose costs on bad actors and to encourage all sorts of parties and institutions and governments around the world to assess risk and reconsider business deals with the sort of predatory Chinese state-owned enterprises that we've identified here,” a senior U.S. State Department official told reporters during a Wednesday telephone briefing.
The U.S. accused China in June of trying to build a “maritime empire” in the South China Sea, which was denied by Beijing.
“We always treat our South China Sea neighbors as equals and exercise maximum restraint,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters in July.
According to the report, China claims at least 80% of the South China Sea, which has vast oil and gas reserves. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim jurisdiction to parts of the area through which trade valued at $3 trillion passes annually.
Among the sanctioned state-owned companies are construction giant China Communications Construction Co., a subsidiary of the China Shipbuilding Group, and a telecommunications company.
The 24 Chinese companies added to the U.S. “entity list” will be banned from purchasing technology and other products shipped from the U.S. While other firms can request a license to continue selling to Chinese companies on the U.S. entity list, such requests are often denied.
“The party seeking to make that transfer of commodities, equipment, software, or technology to the parties on the entity list has to come into Commerce for a specific license,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Matthew Borman told reporters in a Wednesday briefing.
“The licensing policy is a presumption of denial for any such proposed exports, re-exports, or in-country transfers,” he added.
As the U.S. is explicitly endorsing the substance of a binding ruling by a Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague four years ago, China dismissed the ruling. The binding decision issued July 12, 2016, rejected China’s maritime claims as having no basis in international law.
“The Arbitral Tribunal violated the principle of state consent and exercised its jurisdiction ultra vires. There are obvious errors in fact finding and law application in the Award,” said Lijian, the foreign ministry spokesperson, during a press conference on July 14.
In Costa Rica, the U.S. Ambassador of Costa Rica, Sharon Day, has experienced the misdeeds of CCCC, having worked with its subsidiary CHEC on the project to widen Route 32. "CCCC and its subsidiaries are a threat to every country's sovereignty, economic growth, and environmental quality."
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Should authorities from the Ministry of Transport endorse the U.S. government actions against China? We would
like to know your thoughts on this story. Send
your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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