Territorial grab claims ‘made out of thin air’

China uses the “nine-dash line” to justify its sweeping claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea, which encompasses 90 percent of the three million square kilometers sea. a major issue is that the nature of the claim is deliberately ambiguous. it is based on a 1947 map showing vague markings that have since become known as the “nine-dash line.”

In July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague issued its ruling on a claim brought against China by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The international tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines on almost every count, saying that China’s claims had no legal basis. While China is a signatory to the treaty, which established the tribunal, it refuses to accept the court’s authority. China dismissed the ruling, saying the tribunal had no jurisdiction.

There are seven claimants to the South China Sea: China, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. No claimant, however, can match China’s military might. That’s why it continues to intimidate and bully the Philippines and other South China Sea claimants from lawfully accessing their maritime resources.

The South China Sea holds an estimated 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of untapped oil, with much more potentially undiscovered reserves. Apart from oil and gas, the sea is rich in mineral deposits such as titaniferous magnetite, zircon, monazite, tin, gold, and chromite. The South China Sea is also a vital trade route connecting the main arteries of trade in Southeast Asia.

A Bloomberg story on Tuesday—china Accused of Fresh Territorial Grab in South China Sea—said that China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, an unprecedented move they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory in a region critical to global trade.

Bloomberg said: “While China has previously built out disputed reefs, islands and land formations in the area that it had long controlled—and militarized them with ports, runways and other infrastructure—the officials presented images of what they called the first known instances of a nation doing so on territory it doesn’t already occupy. They warned that Beijing’s latest construction activity indicates an attempt to advance a new status quo, even though it’s too early to know whether China would seek to militarize them.”

“The officials said new land formations have appeared above water over the past year at Eldad Reef in the northern Spratlys, with images showing large holes, debris piles and excavator tracks at a site that used to be only partially exposed at high tide. A 2014 photo of the reef, previously reported to have been taken by the Philippine military, had depicted what the officials said was a Chinese maritime vessel offloading an amphibious hydraulic excavator used in land reclamation projects.”

Bloomberg quoted officials saying similar activities have also taken place at Lankiam Cay, known as Panata Island in the Philippines, where a feature had been reinforced with a new perimeter wall over the course of just a couple of months last year. Other images they presented showed physical changes at both Whitsun Reef and Sandy Cay, where previously submerged features now sit permanently above the high-tide line.

Asked to respond to the claims, China’s Foreign Ministry in Beijing said: “The relevant report is purely made out of thin air.”

Denialism is the practice of denying the existence, truth, or validity of something despite proof or strong evidence that it is real, true, or valid.

It can be recalled that China signed a “declaration of conduct” with Southeast Asian nations in 2002 that called on parties to refrain from “inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays and other features” in the South China Sea.