The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/14
By Chen Hurng-Yu
Photo Credit: Reuters/達志影像
The ROC was the first to draw the maritime claim, but has since stayed strategically silent on the issue.
When Vietnam and Malaysia submitted a joint claim for the outer limits of their continental shelves in the South China Sea to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2009, China objected.
In response, it submitted a nine-dashed, or U-shaped, line map of its claim in the South China Sea to the United Nations. The Chinese statement and the U-shaped line provoked official objections, including notes to the United Nations from Vietnam and Indonesia.
The U-shaped line has since become a target for international criticism, with many scholars questioning its legal basis and Beijing’s activities within it, including its habit of driving away foreign ships exploiting oil and gas resources within the U-shaped line and its annual summer fishing ban in parts of the South China Sea since 1999.
Due to their disagreements with China, many foreign governments and scholars have asked for the Taiwanese government’s explanation of the original meaning behind the U-shaped line (which was first officially introduced by the Republic of China in 1947).
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