Vietnam sends ship to track Chinese vessel patrolling Russian gas field in EEZ -data

 

HANOI, March 27 (Reuters) - A Vietnamese ship monitored a Chinese Coast Guard vessel on Saturday in a Russian-operated gas field in Vietnam's South China Sea exclusive economic zone (EEZ), data show - the latest Chinese patrol in a pattern stretching more than a year.

Francesco Guarascio

March 27, 2023·4 min read

Chinese coast guard ships have sailed directly into energy exploration blocks operated or owned by Russian firms in Vietnam's EEZ about 40 times since January 2022, according to vessel-tracking data from Vietnamese research organisation South China Sea Chronicle Initiative (SCSCI), an independent non-profit.

China considers the area part of its expansive territorial claim in the South China Sea marked by a "nine-dash line," a boundary the Permanent Court of Arbitration found in 2016 to have no legal basis. It has built artificial islands and airfields on some reefs and islets in the sea to widespread concern in the region and in the United States.

Both Vietnam and Indonesia have asked China to avoid these areas in their EEZs - although the zones are not territorial waters and do not have sailing restrictions under international law. The patrols mirror Chinese Coast Guard activity elsewhere in the South China Sea, where such vessels have been used to assert territorial claims.

"China is asserting jurisdictional rights to seabed energy resources and (has) used its coast guard to put pressure on regional states," said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Maps created by SCSCI and analysed by Reuters, using Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals from those vessels, show Chinese ships last year followed nearly identical routes at least 34 times from Vanguard Bank, a submerged feature near the boundaries of Vietnamese and Indonesian exclusive economic zones (EEZs), to two Russian-controlled blocks 50 nautical miles (92 kilometres) away - at times getting close as 1 nautical mile from the main wells.

Russia's state-controlled Zarubezhneft is the operator and a shareholder of one the two blocks, 06-01; Russia's gas giant Gazprom is a shareholder in the other, 05-03, which is operated by a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, the country's state-owned fossil fuel company, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank in Washington.

The Chinese ship on Saturday sailed through both blocks, data show, as well as two others. The Vietnamese ship Kiem Ngu 278, operated by a fisheries law enforcement agency, followed the vessel, data show, at times closing to distances of just a few hundred metres.

From those blocks, roughly 630 nautical miles from China's Hainan island, the Chinese ships typically return on a direct route to Vanguard Bank, where they are stationed, data reviewed by Reuters show. The Chinese ship on Saturday instead sailed to Malaysia's EEZ.

A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said the Chinese Coast Guard carries out patrols in the areas under China's jurisdiction in the South China Sea while respecting international law, and said it was not aware of patrols in energy exploration blocks operated by Russian firms.

A spokeswoman for Vietnam's foreign ministry said on Friday that Vietnam acts in the South China Sea “to protect its legal rights”.

Zarubezhneft, Gazprom, and Russia's foreign ministry and embassy in Hanoi did not respond to requests for comment.

Exclusive economic zones generally extend 200 nautical miles (370km) beyond its shores. By international law, a country's territorial waters - in which it can control all activities - typically extend about 12 nautical miles from its shores. Conflicts can arise where such claims overlap.

Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei are among other countries that have competing claims in the South China Sea.

The gas-rich fields exploited by the Russian companies are among the furthest from Vietnam's coast and are close to the strategic boundary with Indonesia's EEZ, and to blocks claimed by China.

Since at least November, the Chinese Coast Guard ships have also expanded their routes, moving through block 12-11, which is jointly operated by Zarubezhneft and PetroVietnam, on their way to oil and gas field 12W, explored by Britain's Harbour Energy , SCSCI data show.

The patrols of the area operated by Harbour Energy started just before Indonesia and Vietnam signed an agreement in December 2022 setting their EEZs' boundaries in the South China Sea, which paved the way for gas deals.

Harbour Energy declined to comment.

Harbour Energy and Zarubezhneft are developing the nearby Tuna gas field in Indonesia's EEZ, from which Jakarta plans to export gas to Vietnam via a pipeline starting in 2026. The project is currently suspended because of Western Ukraine-related sanctions on some of the companies involved.

Chinese Coast Guard vessels have also patrolled the Tuna block; in January, Indonesia deployed a warship to monitor a Chinese ship there.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; additional reporting by Laurie Chen and Joe Cash in Beijing, and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vietnam-sends-ship-track-chinese-071908536.html

China Seizes Thousands Of Maps Over Missing Nine-dash Line Claiming 90% Of South China Sea

Beijing has cracked down on problematic maps that it deems to endanger sovereignty, national reunification, territorial integrity for several years.

Last Updated: 15th August, 2022 05:47 IST

Written By

Zaini Majeed

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/china/china-seizes-thousands-of-maps-over-missing-nine-dash-line-claiming-90-percent-of-south-china-sea-articleshow.html

China's customs officials in the eastern Zhejiang province have seized thousands of maps that were bound for export as they did not portray the national borders of Beijing correctly in the South China Sea. The maps did not show the Chinese self-pronounced territorial claims of the nine-dash line in the South China and East China seas. It is to be noted that China lays sovereign maritime claims on 90% of the South China Sea based on the U-shaped nine-dash line that was demarcated on the map in the 1940s by a Chinese geographer. The neighbouring island nations in the South China Sea, although, contest what they describe as the “illegal Chinese nine-dash line." 

'No legal basis for China to draw straight baselines': UN

United Nations has declared that there is “no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of maritime features or ‘island groups’ in the South China Sea”. And yet, Beijing asserts its maritime expansionist agendas in the South China Sea by the display of its military might and by exercising belligerence against the smaller island countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and self-administered island nation Taiwan which it considers part of PRC. 

As maps that did not show PRC's nine dash line accurately were packed to be exported to the international market, Ningbo city customs authorities seized as many as two batches of these so-called “problematic maps." There were an estimated 23,500 in all. Authorities raised objections that these geographical maps did not show the nine-dash line covering Beijing’s vast claims, correctly.  China's territory, after it unilaterally changed the status quo, extends as far as 2,000km (1,200 miles) from the Chinese mainland. The confiscated maps also did not project the disputed Spratlys and the Paracels in the South China Sea as Beijing's territory. It also left out the uninhabited East China Sea islands called the Diaoyus – claimed by Japan as the Senkaku.

READ | US says ready to hold fresh air & maritime transits in Taiwan Strait amid China tensions

"Beijing has cracked down on problematic maps”that it deems to endanger sovereignty, national reunification, territorial integrity, national security and interests for several years," South China Morning Post reported.

"Omitting disputed territories and the nine-dash line are typical characteristics of problematic maps, according to China’s natural resources ministry, the state map regulator," it added. 

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https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/china/china-seizes-thousands-of-maps-over-missing-nine-dash-line-claiming-90-percent-of-south-china-sea-articleshow.html

Malaysian FM sees shift in China’s justification of sweeping South China Sea claims

Saifuddin Abdullah says Beijing now “speaks less of the ‘nine-dash line’ and more often of the ‘Four Sha’.”

2022.01.18

A file photo showing Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah speaking during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, China, Sept. 12, 2019.

 Reuters

China appears to be shifting from the so-called “nine-dash line” toward a new legal theory to support its expansive claims in the South China Sea, although analysts say its alternative is also problematic under international law.

In comments to reporters last week, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said Beijing now “speaks less of the ‘nine-dash line’ and more often of the ‘Four Sha’.” He said the shift toward has been witnessed by member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and “is even more serious” than the old claim.

“Four Sha,” or Four Sands Archipelagos, are the four island groups in the South China Sea that Beijing claims to hold “historical rights” to.  China calls them “Dongsha Qundao,” “Xisha Qundao,” “Zhongsha Qundao,” and “Nansha Qundao.” Internationally, they are known as Pratas Islands, Paracel Islands, the Macclesfield Bank area and Spratly Islands.

The concept they may be eclipsing, the nine-dash line, is a U-shaped line encircling most of the South China Sea that China has been using to demarcate its sovereignty over the sea.

An international tribunal in 2016 invalidated the line saying China has no legal basis for it. Although Beijing rejected the ruling, other nations have endorsed it.

“The nine-dash line has proven to be a really easy target for critics of China’s South China Sea claims,” Julian Ku, a professor at the Hofstra University School of Law in Long Island, New York State, said.

“It was also directly considered and rejected by the South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal in 2016.”

“China’s Four Sha theory was not directly considered by the tribunal ruling, although it would also be difficult to support,” Ku said, adding: “Still, it is a less dramatic claim and it is also not based solely on historical claims.”

Illustrative map of the apparent geographic extents of Dongsha Qundao, Xisha Qundao, Zhongsha Qundao, and Nansha Qundao, from which the PRC claims its maritime zones. Credit: U.S. State Department's report 'Limits in the Seas'

‘Slowly emerging’

Bill Hayton, a journalist-turned-scholar who wrote an acclaimed book on the South China Sea, said the Four Sha theory has been “emerging slowly, with a boost after the arbitration tribunal ruling.”

“The Four-Sha is an attempt to develop an UNCLOS-like justification for control over the South China Sea with some sort of legal basis,” he said. UNCLOS is the acronym for the UN Convention of the Law on the Sea.

“But everyone else is still rejecting it,” Hayton added.

Each of the archipelagos in the Four Sha consists of a large number of scattered outlying features, most of which are submerged under water. Beijing insists that they are to be treated as whole units for purposes of sovereignty and maritime entitlements.

The Zhongsha Qundao, or Macclesfield Bank area, is actually entirely underwater, and not an archipelago, experts say.

Ku from the Hofstra University said although the first-known attempt by Chinese officials to advance Four Sha as a new legal theory was recorded at a closed-door meeting with U.S. State Department officials in 2017, “the Four Sha are not new to China’s claims in the South China Sea.”

The Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of the People's Republic of China, adopted by China in 1992, declared the four island groups. They were also mentioned in a 2016 white paper issued by China disputing the Philippines’ claims in the South China Sea arbitral process.

“These new Chinese legal justifications are no more lawful than China’s nine-dash line claim but it is more confusing and less simple to criticize,” Ku said.

A U.S. State Department report on China’s South China Sea claims that was published this month, ‘Limits in the Seas’, does not mention Four Sha concept. But it does analyze the People’s Republic of China (PRC) sovereignty claim over Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha. It concludes that China’s assertions of sovereignty are “unlawful.”

Change of approach?

The apparent shift from nine-dash line to Four Sha has caused concern among South China Sea claimants.

Malaysia is among the ASEAN nations’ whose territorial claims overlap with China’s in the South China Sea. The others are Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam. While Indonesia does not regard itself as party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing does claim historic rights to areas overlapping Indonesia's exclusive economic zone.

In a response to a question posed by a reporter from BenarNews, a sister agency of RFA, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin told reporters last Thursday that “they (China) have changed from using mostly the nine-dash line narrative to the Four Sha. I can see some policy change in the way they approach the South China Sea.”

“It is yet to be seen whether the Four Sha (approach) is more aggressive or the nine-dash line (is) more aggressive,” Saifuddin said.

Ku said he did not think the Four Sha claim would necessarily lead to more aggressive actions by China, but “it provides another justification for aggressive actions that it might want to take.”

Hayton, meanwhile, saw potential for escalation in the South China Sea as Four Sha concept “has given Chinese actors some new confidence that they can make a plausible case. We've seen a lot more assertive actions recently, like China’s harassing oil and gas off Malaysia and Indonesia,” he said.

In a related development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has reiterated that his country will not use its strength to "bully” its smaller neighbors. He also highlighted the importance of settling disputes in the South China Sea peacefully.

"Stressing only one side's claims and imposing one's own will on the other is not a proper way for neighbours to treat each other and it goes against the oriental philosophy of how people should get along with each other," Wang told a virtual forum organized by the Chinese embassy in the Philippines on Monday.

Muzliza Mustafa of RFA-affiliated BenarNews in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.

Source

Detailed US government study declares China’s maritime claims unlawful

The Chinese South china Sea claims are by far the largest, covering up to 90 percent of the sea.

2022.01.13

 RFA

UPDATED at 8:35 A.M. on 2022-01-14

The U.S. State Department has issued its most comprehensive study yet on China’s sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea and concludes that they amount to an unlawful claim to most of the disputed waterway and “gravely undermine the rule of law.”

The 47-page ‘Limits in the Seas’ report, released on Wednesday, also states that China’s claim to “historic rights” over the South China Sea is unlawful – a finding that concurs with the decision of the 2016 international arbitration tribunal in a case brought by the Philippines.

China, which has ignored the tribunal, has been engaged in territorial disputes with five other claimants in the South China Sea. The Chinese claims are by far the largest, covering up to 90 percent of the sea.

“These claims, especially considering their expansive geographic and substantive scope, gravely undermine the rule of law in the oceans and numerous universally recognized provisions of international law reflected in the Convention (on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS),” the State Department report says.

In the report, the U.S. reiterates its call for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to conform its maritime claims to international law and to comply with the decision of the tribunal, as well as “to cease its unlawful and coercive activities in the South China Sea.”

Beijing insists that it holds “historical rights” to most of the South China Sea and has declared the arbitration tribunal’s ruling “null and void.” It also points out that the U.S. is not a signatory of UNCLOS, which China ratified in 1996.

"China sets great store by the Convention and earnestly observes the Convention in a rigid and responsible manner. The U.S. refuses to join the Convention, but styles itself as a judge," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

"Such political manipulation is irresponsible and undermines international rule of law," he told a news conference in Beijing Thursday.

"Our sovereignty and relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea are established in the long course of history and are in line with the UN Charter, UNCLOS and other international law," added Wang.

The U.S. report, which examines four categories of maritime claims made by China, is one of a series issued by the State Department’s Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs on maritime claims by different countries.

“It’s really well-argued, based on the latest information from Chinese sources,” said Bill Hayton, a well-known South China Sea scholar.

“It doesn’t change the U.S. position in any way but it gives everyone who follows developments in the South China Sea a really good set of data points on which to base their discussions,” he added.

Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands, pictured in an Aug. 20, 2021, satellite image. It is one of the major bases China has built on disputed features in the South China Sea. Credit: Planet Labs.

‘Historical rights’

The U.S. position has always been that it doesn’t take side in the dispute about which country has sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea.

The new study “examines only the maritime claims asserted by the PRC and does not examine the merits of sovereignty claims to islands in the South China Sea asserted by the PRC or other States.”

However, the findings show that "the overall effect of these maritime claims is that the PRC unlawfully claims sovereignty or some form of exclusive jurisdiction over most of the South China Sea.”

In recent years, China has been developing artificial islands and stepping up military presence to reinforce its sovereignty claims despite concerns and protests from neighboring countries.

The new report builds on a previous U.S. analysis of China’s so-called “nine-dash line” that encircles most of the South China Sea and serves as the basis for the claim to “historical rights” in the sea.

“The idea of 'historic rights' in the South China Sea was invented by Professor Kuen-Chen Fu and other nationalist 'New Party' politicians in Taiwan in the late 1980s and 1990s,” explained Hayton, adding that it was then incorporated into China’s legal framework.

China also claimed that its nine-dash line is a successor to the U-shaped line map issued by the Republic of China government, based in Taiwan, in 1947.

But Taiwan, despite being a claimant, “does not recognize the nine-dash line used by China to claim ‘historical rights’ in the South China Sea,” said Chung-Ting Huang, a research fellow at the Taiwanese Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

“Taiwan and China are not on the same page about the definition of the nine-dash line,” Huang said.

Noting that China has not provided any additional information about the substantive content of this historical rights claim, the “Limits in the Seas” report said the claim is inconsistent with international law and “the international community, including littoral states of the South China Sea, has made clear that it rejects the PRC’s ‘historic rights’ claim.”

Other maritime claims

Besides “historic rights,” three other categories of claims examined in the State Department’s report are sovereignty claims over maritime features; straight baselines; and maritime zones.

Baselines are demarcation lines connecting the outermost points of the features of archipelago that are meant to circumscribe the territory that belongs to it.

China claims sovereignty over more than 100 features in the South China Sea that are submerged by water during high tide.

Beijing has been drawing straight baselines around four groups of scattered islands in order to claim ownership of everything within those baselines.

Analyzing each of those claims using UNCLOS, the report said that China’s “expansive maritime claims are plainly inconsistent with international law.”

“The United States and numerous other states have rejected these claims in favor of the rules-based international maritime order within the South China Sea and worldwide,” it concluded.

Source

 

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