By Shannon Tiezzi
Caught between its own territorial claims and international criticism of the “nine-dashed line”, what is Taiwan to do?
One week ago today, the U.S. sent a destroyer within 12 nautical miles of the Chinese-controlled Subi Reef in the South China Sea on a freedom of navigation patrol. Two days later, on October 29, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that it does have jurisdiction to hear the Philippines’ case challenging China’s “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea. In other words, it’s been a big week for the South China Sea disputes.
Discussions of the South China Sea tend to center around China – its “aggression” or “assertiveness”; the ambiguity of its claims; its moves to overturn the “status quo” or create “facts on the water” by building artificial islands. But China isn’t alone in claiming wide swathes of the South China Sea based on “historical” claims that seem out-of-step with UNCLOS. In fact, Taiwan – a close U.S. partner and generally seen as an upstanding supporter of international law – has claims almost identical to Beijing’s, a function of the fact that the Republic of China government was the originator of China’s claim to the u-shaped line encircling most of the South China Sea.
Taiwan is in something of a bind when it comes to the South China Sea issue. On the one hand, no government wants to relinquish territorial claims – in Taiwan’s case in particular, the constitution dictates that “the territory of the Republic of China within its existing national boundaries shall not be altered except by a resolution of the National Assembly.” That means, legally speaking, Taipei could not simply relinquish its claim over the South China Sea features even if it were so inclined.
Read the full story at The Diplomat