China Has Recently Reaffirmed Their Ownership Of The Spratly Islands
CHINA’S REAFFIRMATION – China just re-established their claim of the disputed waters saying they have “sufficient historical and legal basis.”
There has been a lot of back and forth action done by both countries in the past few days regarding the West Philippine Sea/South China Sea dispute. And the Armed Forces of the Philippines claimed that they are ready to defend the country’s sovereignty.
China claims almost the entirety of South China Sea despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision to recognize the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the Hague.
The area where the Spratly Islands are located is within the 200-mile nautical zone of the Philipines. This includes the Kalayaan group of Islands or Spratlys. But China persists on disregarding the ruling.
This is based on the reports from CNN Philippines. According to their article,
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang released a statement during his press conference on Thursday saying that Spratly’s or Nansha Islands as they call it, is “within China’s territory.”
He also expressed historical data as basis for his claims. He even said, “For thousands of years, Chinese fishermen have been fishing in these waters in the South China Sea. Their rights should not be challenged.”
This was after the Malacañang press briefing where Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo released a statement saying the 200+ Chinese marine vessels around Pag-asa Island “have no business in there and should go away.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. claims he had ‘fired off a salvo’ of diplomatic notes against China. Salvador Panelo also stated that the government will file another diplomatic protest once the presence of Chinese vessels around Philippine-occupied Kota Island is confirmed.
Also, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy “Teddyboy” Locsin Jr. says that he is personally not afraid of war. He expressed his firmness towards his stance in his tweet:
But when asked about the reactions towards the statements, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that China wants to resolve the disputes with negotiation. Saying that Beijing is looking forward to Philippines’ cooperation.
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.
