Who speaks for China?
| AN OUTSIDERS VIEW |
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| Ken Fuller |
At the South China Sea Forum held in Manila on Oct. 16 and 17, Chen Siqiu, China’s former ambassador to Indonesia, spoke on the Spratlys dispute. At the request of the Chinese Embassy, his speech was reprinted in the Manila Times (“Why China owns the South China Sea and all the islands there,” Nov. 1.)
The dispute, says Chen, arose only in the 1970s, when oil and gas were discovered and other countries began to lay claim to the islands and reefs. Prior to this, for over a thousand years there had been no doubt that they belonged to China.
Chen sets out a number of legal grounds to underpin China’s claim, the “most pertinent” of which is the principle of “intertemporal law.” This was established by Max Huber, the Swiss arbiter who in 1928 affirmed that the island of Palmas (or Miangas) was Dutch rather than American territory, ruling that Spain had no right to transfer it to the USA by the Treaty of Paris in 1898 because, while Spain may have discovered it in the 16th century, it had thereafter done nothing with it..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111115com5.html
1 comment
"inferior race" ka diyan. tingnan mo nga histura ng purong tsino o purong briton o purong malay ba? lahat ng puro pangit. lol. dapat may konting intermarriage pero konti lang, yung kalapit lahi, mas mainam.
"This time around, while most commentators are outraged by the provocative editorial, the language is somewhat milder than previously. But eventually “imperial dragon” puts in an appearance, with comments such as “nuking time for inferior races: Vietnamese, Indians and Filippino” and “now is the time to wipe out Vietnamese population. Occupy Hanoi and gang rape all the village girl with PLA soldiers.”
"So who speaks for China — the apparently reasonable Chen, the provocative Global Times or the obnoxious “imperial dragon?” Or is this a game of good cop-bad cop-even worse cop?"
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