After the International Court of Arbitration in the Hague demanded China make a legal defense of its territorial claims over the disputed South China Sea on Jun. 3, it is time for Beijing to consider building a legal framework for its nine-dot line claim, says Qi Huaigao, an associate professor at Shanghai's Fudan University in a commentary written for state-run Global Times.
Qi said that the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf currently only mentions China's historic rights over the disputed waters. It does not give any clear legal definition of China's claim over the South China Sea. The original eleven-dot line also known as the U-shaped line was first published by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China in 1947, and was then revised to a nine-dot line and endorsed by premier Zhou Enlai after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Read the full story at Want China Times