Editor: Joshua Eisenman, China Reform Monitor, No. 894, May 3, 2011 —
April 15:
The Philippines has lodged a formal protest at the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf over China’s claims to the Spratly islands and adjacent South China Sea waters. The newest controversy in the decades-old multilateral dispute centers on formal notes sent by China to the UN secretary general in 2009 outlining the basis of its claim. China has recently reiterated its exclusive claims to all the disputed areas and their adjacent waters, much of which is actually closer to the Philippines. The Philippines claims more than fifty islands in the Spratly archipelago. Manila’s petition argues for the islands and the water surrounding them, and that China’s claim has no basis under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Vietnam and Malaysia have also submitted letters to the UN outlining their own rival claims, the Bangkok Post reports.
[Editor’s Note: Patrol boats from China’s navy harassed a Philippine oil exploration vessel in March in disputed waters near the Spratly Islands. In response Manila announced plans to pursue oil exploration in the South China Sea and upgrade a military airfield on Thitu island, the largest of the seven Spratly islands that the Philippines occupies.
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