End sea imperialism
An international treaty that would bind nations, including China and the Philippines, that ratify it may contribute to creating order in the West Philippine Sea.
The United Nations High Seas Treaty international agreement seeks to create marine protected areas beyond the economic zones, including those that China claims under its so-called 10-dash-line.
The agreement, also known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, was adopted last year and was signed by 85 states, including the Philippines and China.
It needs to be ratified by at least 60 countries to enter into force. Thus far, only Palau has ratified the treaty.
Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who was among the Filipino officials who brought the case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration that in 2016 invalidated China’s maritime claim, has encouraged the early ratification of the treaty.
“The high seas treaty is another layer, another legal instrument that would bury the ten-dash-line claim of China,” Carpio said.
High Seas is defined in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS, which states that this area starts seaward from the outer limit of a country’s exclusive economic zone.
Based on an UNCLOS provision, the water column and the living resources belong to the common heritage of humanity. Similarly, the non-living resources are not owned by any particular nation.
About 25 percent of the West Philippine Sea, or WPS, is High Seas based on the UNCLOS definition, which means the treaty applies to China’s claimed water expanse.
Under the 10-dash line, the High Seas and its seabed are baselessly claimed by China as its national territory.
In effect, the historical claim denies that there are High Seas in the WPS despite compelling physical and legal evidence. The 10-dash line covers about 85.7 percent of the contested sea. China also claims all the mineral resources on the seabed encompassed by the 10-dash line.
The treaty, when ratified, will clash with China’s new Coast Guard Law, which Carpio said violates the foundational principle of the UN Charter.
Beijing’s new Coast Guard Law authorizes the use of all necessary means, including force like firing cannons and automatic weapons, on foreign ships that infringe on China’s jurisdictional waters, including within the 10-dash line.
The Coast Guard Law is a threat of force against all states that would enforce the High Seas Treaty when it takes effect.
Carpio described the victims of China’s maritime imperialism as not only the Philippines and other coastal states around the WPS but all the nations of the world that, “under UNCLOS, as the legal owners of the High Seas as these form part of the common heritage of mankind.”
According to Carpio, a united stand should be taken by all nations to call out China’s seizure of the high seas and the seabed in the WPS as a grand theft of humanity’s shared heritage.
China, by seizing the EEZs of coastal states in the South China Sea, is also in gross violation of UNCLOS.
The threat of force through its Coast Guard Law breaches the foundational principle of the UN Charter, Carpio said.
To make clear the global indignation against China’s actions, states that ratify the High Seas Treaty should expressly assert that its provisions apply to the WPS.
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The high seas treaty is another layer, another legal instrument that would bury the ten-dash-line claim of China. “About 25 percent of the West Philippine Sea, or WPS, is High Seas based on the UNCLOS definition, which means the treaty applies to China’s claimed water expanse.