【菲律宾星报0111】China has lost diplomatic row

lilyma06

China has lost diplomatic row                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                        
                                       http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=766829&publicationSubCategoryId=64
                                                       It took less than a minute to hand down the verdict. The judge declared that the DNA sample was tainted, so all allied evidence were unreliable, including the uncorroborated tale of sodomy. Therefore, Anwar Ibrahim is innocent.
The Malaysian opposition leader was stunned with disbelief. Expecting a 20-year sentence from a court that denied him crucial defense, he had brought his toothbrush and daily medications for the start of a long prison term. The exoneration means Anwar can run in elections this year for prime minister. Thousands of followers outside the courthouse cried for joy. Human rights lawyers reiterated that the charge should not have been heard to begin with because trumped up.
Curiously the police tolerated the demonstrators — none of the usual tear-gassing and clubbing — as if in solidarity with them. Too, Anwar’s tormentor, UMNO party boss PM Najib Razak, had flown out to Africa the night before. Are we witnessing cracks in its 50-year rule?

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How long can China keep it up — accusing neighbors of “causing disturbance” whenever they protest its naval intrusions? Its you-are-the-troublemaker-not-us line makes it look ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Beijing seems to not realize that it has lost diplomatic esteem with its unfounded “nine-dash line” claim over the entire South China Sea. No country would want to be regarded by the world as a hollow bully.
Beijing is spewing that worn out line anew in response to Manila’s recent complaint. Two Chinese vessels and a warship had steamed into Philippine waters last Dec. 11-12, circling Escoda Shoal, 70 miles (113 km) west of Palawan. A Philippine patrol boat and airplane watched the illegal entrants from afar. Manila then fired off a diplomatic note about the sandbank (international name: Sabina Shoal) being part of the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Whereas, China’s southernmost island-province of Hainan is more than 990 miles away.
China’s actions and response were provocative. Its two ships were monitored to be returning to China from Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratlys, but detoured for two days to Escoda Shoal. No coherent explanation was offered, just the stern reply: “We hope the Philippines will not create something from nothing and cause disturbance.”
This wasn’t the first time China showed imperious interest in Escoda. In the late ’80s it planted buoys to delineate the sand drops, prompting the Philippine Navy to target-practice machineguns on the floats. Last year Manila protested China’s dropping of similar markers in nearby Iroquois Reed and Amy Douglas Bank. Also, the near ramming of a Philippine survey vessel and two fishing boats in the Recto Bank. Like Escoda, all three are well within the Philippine EEZ, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Even without the UNCLOS, they are within Philippine territory as designated in the Treaty of Paris by which Spain ceded the archipelago to the US in 1898.
In the latest row, Beijing insisted there was nothing wrong with its movements around Escoda Shoal. Since it has a Chinese name, a foreign ministry spokesman insisted, the sandbar is part of Chinese territory. It was a reiteration of the nine-dash line claim. In 2009 China unilaterally declared ownership of the whole South China Sea by virtue of nine demarcating dashes from an “ancient map.”
        

On the basis of that unproven map, China also feels free to intrude in Vietnamese waters. It claims ownership of the Paracel Islands, just off Vietnam’s coast but 550 miles from Hainan. Via the nine-dash boundary too, China is pushing Malaysia and Brunei out of the Spratly chain, and courting maritime trouble with Indonesia.
The ten-member ASEAN considers only the Spratlys, in the middle of the South China Sea, 910 miles from Hainan, to be truly disputed. The Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia lay claim to some or all of the islands, as do China and Taiwan.
It is not only in the South China Sea that Beijing is asserting its economic and naval scope. Using another set of unproven ancient maps, it claims ownership as well of the North China Sea and several island chains. Thus, it has been feuding as well with Japan.
Analysts believe that the Chinese Communist Party is being misled by ascendant hawks who wish to test the extent of Beijing’s economic and naval might. More sedate policy-makers see folly in belligerence, though. They would rather focus on economic-diplomatic dominance, in a globalized commerce founded on localized trade and ties.



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