By Eric Huang
The country’s next leader must continue to assert without ambiguity its claims in the South China Sea.
On December 12, the 69th anniversary of the return of Taiping Island from Japan to the Republic of China, Interior Minister Chen Wei-zen presided over the opening of a renovated wharf and a newly constructed lighthouse on the island. The event occurred amid aggressive actions by other claimants and calls for all stakeholders to seek peaceful resolution to sovereignty disputes. Coast Guard Administration Minister Wang Chung-yi and officials from other government agencies accompanied Interior Minister Chen.
As part of the ceremony, a memorial plaque signed by President Ma Ying-jeou was installed, engraved with the words “Peace in the South China Sea and our national territory secure forever.”
Indeed, there is no dispute that the ROC on Taiwan has, for more than 60 years, held sovereignty over and governed Taiping. The ROC reclaimed sovereignty over the Tungsha (Pratas), Shisha (Paracel), and Nansha (Spratlys) from Japan in 1946, and erected markers as well as garrisoned troops on major islands in these island groups. As the largest of the Spratly Islands, ROC sovereignty over Taiping declares to the international community that the islands in the South China Sea and its surrounding waters are an inherent part of the ROC.
Taiping is crucial to Taiwan’s sovereignty claims, because under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, if Taiping is defined as an uninhabitable reef, its marine territorial area will extend a maximum of 12 nautical miles, while if it is categorized as an island, the exclusive economic zone will stretch 200 nautical miles, which for Taiping creates a total marine territory of 126,000 nautical square miles.
Coast Guard forces stationed on Taiping Island rear livestock, grow fruits and vegetables, utilize phosphate ore and fishery resources, and the four groundwater wells provide 65 metric tons of water a day. Thus, Taiping certainly meets UNCLOS Article 121’s definition of an island as a naturally formed land mass surrounded by water and capable of sustaining human habitation or economic life. Taiping is not a reef, whether from the perspective of law, economy or geography.
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