南シナ海をめぐる中国の主張や行動は国連海洋法条約違反である。中国は
国際社会の一員として行動する能力を持っているのか疑わしい。
China has lost a key international legal case over strategic
reefs and atolls that it claims would give it control over
disputed waters of the South China Sea.
The judgment by an international tribunal in The
Hague is overwhelmingly in favour of claims by the Philippines
and will increase global diplomatic pressure on Beijing to scale
back military expansion in the sensitive area.
By depriving certain outcrops – some of which are exposed
only at low tide –of territorial-generating status, the
ruling effectively punches holes in China’s all-encompassing
“nine-dash” demarcation line that stretches deep into the
South China Sea. It declares large areas of the sea to be
neutral international waters.
The findings by the Hague tribunal contain a series of criticisms
of China’s actions and claims. The court declares that
“although Chinese navigators and fishermen, as well as
those of other states, had historically made use of the islands
in the South China Sea, there was no evidence that China
had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters
or their resources.
“The tribunal concluded that there was no legal basis for
China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea
areas falling within the‘nine-dash line’.”
