Russian expert denies China's absurd 'nine-dash line'

Russian experts affirmed that China's 'nine-dash line' claim has absolutely no legal value at the international workshop 'Mechanism for resolving territorial disputes on the example of the East Sea' held at the Russian Academy of Justice on September 29.

Experts attending the workshop.

Here, scholars and students attending presented many papers and discussed the July 12 ruling of the United Nations Arbitration Court on the Philippines' lawsuit against China.

In this workshop, experts continued to affirm that China's 'nine-dash line' claim has absolutely no legal value.

Russian experts said: "All the historical evidence that Chinese scientists rely on is unconvincing and unproven. It is basically based only on assertions related to discovery, invasion and relations between Chinese dynasties and vassal states in the region.

China has not provided any evidence for its arguments, such as Chinese fishermen discovering and naming the islands in the East Sea, and China having a long history of exercising indisputable sovereignty over the East Sea...

Experts and students attended the workshop.

Legally, although China is a signatory and ratifier of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), its territorial claims in the East Sea are completely inconsistent with the provisions of UNCLOS.

As a party to UNCLOS, China is bound to comply with all the provisions of the Convention and cannot claim any rights and jurisdiction that are inconsistent with this Convention.

Therefore, China's occupation of islands in the above archipelagos and declaration of the 'nine-dash line' on the basis of 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone is completely contrary to the provisions of international law.

Regarding the PCA's ruling, from the beginning, China refused to cooperate with the PCA, but the PCA's charter clearly states that the lawsuit can be considered even in the absence of the defendant.

Thus, from the legal and historical bases and the working process of the Arbitration Court, it can be seen that the 'nine-dash line' claim put forth by China has absolutely no legal value.

The PCA's ruling puts an end to this issue by affirming that the 'nine-dash line' has no basis and has no legal effect.

According to Vtc.vn