The China Post
Date: August 18, 2016
By: Chanda JL, Special to The China Post
TAIPEI, Taiwan — The NATO Association of Canada has said that Taiwan had been
Taiping Island is seen in this photograb from the NATO Association of Canada website made on Wednesday, Aug. 17. The association said Taiwan has been victimized by last month’s Hague ruling on the South China Sea. (CNA)
victimized by last month’s Hague ruling on the South China Sea.
In an article published on the association’s website, research analyst David Sutton said that though “The Hague ruling wished to restrict the Asian giant China … it ended up affecting Taiwan.”
Sutton said that the case, which was brought to establish the legal rights of the Philippines in the South China Sea, had harmed an “unrecognized but abiding member” in Taiwan.
The article rebuts the ruling’s finding that Taiping should not be classified as an island, which would entitle it to a 200-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
Pointing to Article 121 of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which defines an island as “a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water,” the article argues that Taiping’s status “should not be up for dispute.”
Sutton says that Taiwan had maintained a cooperative approach to disputes in the South China Sea, pointing to the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters (台菲漁業事務執法合作協定), which was finalized between the Philippines and Taiwan last year. The agreement was prompted by hostilities between the two sides in the SCS that resulted in the death of a Taiwanese fisherman two years ago. [FULL STORY]
