EDITORIAL
Date: 2016-07-14
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

As predicted by many, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued a ruling July 12 which favored the Philippines over China in their dispute in the South China Sea.

The five-member panel came to the conclusion that China could not exert historic rights over the area, thus rejecting its claims based on the so-called “nine-dash line” over a large part of the South China Sea extending deeply into Southeast Asia.

While a slap in the face for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s aggressive policies in the Pacific might seem at first look like good news for Taiwan, the island nation became indirectly involved in the PCA verdict, and completely on the negative side.

Even though the case was brought by the Philippines against China and other nations, including Taiwan, should not have been involved or even mentioned, the PCA went out of its way to make remarks completely unacceptable to Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]