Despite the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Recently, despite the reactions of countries around the world and countries involved in territorial disputes in the East Sea, China continues to take actions and make statements that go against the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Most recently, under the pretext of raising people's awareness of national sovereignty, China published a map encompassing 130 islands in this sea area and the islands disputed with Japan.
(Baonghean)Recently, despite the reactions of countries around the world and countries involved in territorial disputes in the East Sea, China continues to take actions and make statements that go against the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Most recently, under the pretext of raising people's awareness of national sovereignty, China published a map encompassing 130 islands in this sea area and the islands disputed with Japan.
It seems that in order to affirm that China's policy after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China towards disputed areas has not changed, recently this country has even continuously increased the realization of its ambition to monopolize the East Sea with increasingly arrogant actions and statements. Previously, China printed a map of the nine-dash line in its electronic passport, which was strongly opposed by Vietnam and the Philippines. Not only that, the new passport also printed a map with disputed areas between China and India. Last weekend, the spokesperson of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially protested Taiwan's oil and gas exploration in Truong Sa. In recent days, international public opinion has been worried about the rising "heat" in the disputed Senkaku Islands (China calls Diaoyu Islands) with unusual "visits" by Chinese aircraft and large-scale island-keeping exercises with high readiness by Japan.
Not stopping at increasing the "heat" with a series of foreign countries, China also propagates the ideology of hegemony and monopoly of the East Sea, with the ambition to raise the intention of invasion to the common awareness of the majority of people by publishing a map of 130 islands in this sea area and also the disputed islands with Japan in East China. The publication of this map was clearly implied by China when choosing a publishing agency with a very high administrative representativeness, which is the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation of China (NASMG). Thus, this is the first time that this country has clearly marked the islands (specifically identifying each island in detail) in the East Sea on an official map. In which, most of the islands and archipelagos have never been described by China in previous maps. According to NASMG, the new map will be released to the Chinese public at the end of January 2013.
Despite the commitments, agreements, and affirmations that China has made with relevant countries in its foreign affairs activities, and despite the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to which China was a member and agreed to ratify, those responsible for issuing this map have made clear China's purpose and intention that the issuance of the new map is to raise people's awareness of national sovereignty, protect maritime rights and interests, and more importantly, to demonstrate China's political and diplomatic stance. So it is clear that China has not hidden its intentions.
However, whether China's plan to issue a new map and arbitrarily declare sovereignty over the islands, archipelagos, and waters of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Japan will achieve its goal of "raising awareness" of the Chinese people about the sea, maritime rights, and national sovereignty is unknown, but immediately this intention to invade has encountered reactions and deep disagreement with countries with undeniable sovereignty in the East Sea as well as countries supporting the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Ngo Kien
