The United States on Thursday backed the Philippines in criticizing a unilateral seasonal ban on fishing declared by Beijing in the dispute-rife South China Sea.
This developed as Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the ban won’t be enforced anywhere in the country’s exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.
The State Department pointed to a 2016 ruling by a court in The Hague that rejected Beijing’s claims, as well as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ratified by China although not by the United States.
“The PRC’s unilateral fishing moratorium in the South China Sea is inconsistent with the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling and international law,” State Department spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
“We call upon the PRC to abide by its obligations under international law.”
This comes on the heels of a 10-day South Pacific island-hopping tour by China’s top diplomat, which focused world attention on a usually overlooked region, opened a new front in Beijing’s quest for global influence, and challenged decades of Western primacy.
On the face of it, Wang Yi’s trip was a failure, according to an Agence France Presse report.
Wang’s centerpiece proposal—a regional pact to turbocharge China’s role in Pacific island security—was leaked to the press and then roundly rejected by regional leaders, the report said.
Representatives of the 10 Pacific Island states were not shy about expressing their displeasure at China trying to ram through such a consequential agreement with next-to-no consultation, the AFP added.
Meanwhile, Locsin remains unperturbed by China’s rejection of the Philippines’ protest on Beijing’s unilateral imposition of a fishing ban in the South China Sea.
He stressed that China could say anything about the diplomatic protest the Department of Foreign Affairs filed over the fishing ban that covers maritime areas in the WPS “which the Philippines has sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.”
However, Locsin said it does not mean the Philippines will have to also enforce the ban over its waters.
“It’s a free world after all; you can say anything from Beijing; won’t be enforced anywhere in the West Philippine Sea,” the country’s top diplomat said, on his Twitter account.
The Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States, on Tuesday summoned a Chinese diplomat over the announcement of a unilateral fishing ban as well as alleged harassment of a marine research vessel by a Chinese coast guard ship.
China has each year declared a fishing ban in the summer, pointing to the need to develop sustainable marine life due to overfishing in the major population hub.
But its actions have been caught up in disputes over sovereignty, with Beijing insisting it has jurisdiction over a vast part of the South China Sea — a longstanding source of friction with the Philippines, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian nations.
According to Locsin, the Philippines can also issue a ban but there is no need for that as the country is not overfishing its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
He also said that if China is aware of any overfishing in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), a heads up from them about it would be appreciated.
“We can issue a ban ourselves but no need. We haven’t overfished our EEZed. China may know something about Chinese overfishing in the WPS; we’d appreciate a heads up,” Locsin stressed.
On Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that China cannot accept the Philippines’ claims that the three-and-a-half month fishing ban in the South China Sea breached the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
China said the Philippines’ accusation is “unwarranted” and noted that China was only doing a “normal measure of protecting marine biological resources in waters under China’s jurisdiction.”
The Philippines pointed out that the declaration of a moratorium on fishing that extends to the West Philippine Sea “has no basis in law, and undermines the mutual trust, confidence, and respect” between the two nations.
China has each year declared a fishing ban in the summer, pointing to the need to develop sustainable marine life due to overfishing in the major population hub.
