Tag Archives: West Philippine Sea

Unrequited love

In April 2018, President Duterte declared, “I just simply love Xi Jinping.” President Duterte made this declaration in a press conference in Davao City just before he left for China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia. Unfortunately for President Duterte, and more so for the Filipino people, this public expression of love has been […]

China’s South China Sea claims are not supported by its own historical records

Is China starting down a path similar to that followed by Japan and Germany before 1945, when nationalism backed by new economic clout led to overconfidence and adventures which eventually proved disastrous? The question needs asking in the context of China’s latest moves ultimately aimed at making the South China Sea into a Chinese lake. […]

Should PH seek provisional measures from U.N. vs China?

The Philippine government’s protests through media now sounds like a broken record. The United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea will start the hearing of the Philippine suit against China’s nine dash line map which encroached on territories of the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam on July 6. But even a […]

China’s reservations

China has made three reservations to the compulsory and binding dispute settlement procedure of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Of these, only two appear to be relevant to the Philippine arbitral submission against China involving the West Philippine Sea. The first, a reservation on maritime delimitation, does not appear to be […]