ManilaTimes-Sept 1
The Philippines has rejected the 2023 version of China’s map which features a new 10-dash line that defines China’s boundaries in the South China Sea. The map, issued by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources on August 28, has also been opposed by India and Malaysia because it claims parts of their territories. The map, published by Beijing’s state-owned newspaper, Global Times, covers a large part of the South China Sea, including the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea. It also showed Taiwan as well as India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin region as part of China’s domain. “This latest attempt to legitimize China’s purported sovereignty and jurisdiction over Philippine features and maritime zones has no basis under international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos),” the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. On July 12, 2016, the Philippines won its petition before the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) after the tribunal invalidated Beijing’s claim of historic rights over almost the entire South China Sea. China refuses to accept the tribunal’s ruling. The DFA said the ruling “categorically stated that maritime areas of the South China Sea encompassed by the ‘nine-dash line’ are contrary to the Convention and without lawful effect to the extent that they exceed the geographic and substantive limits of China’s maritime entitlements under the Convention.'”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the release of the 2023 edition of the map “is a routine practice in China’s exercise of sovereignty in accordance with the law.” Read more at: https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/09/01/news/ph-rejects-china-10-dash-map/1907901
