Czech activist rebuts China’s wrongful viewpoint on East Sea

The article on the Czech Republic’s Halo noviny daily was published shortly after the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which rejected China’s unfounded territorial claims for waters within the so-called nine-dash line. 

Marcel Winter wrote on the society’s website that the Halo noviny article demonstrated China’s subjective and groundless viewpoints. 

He stressed that the Philippines filed the lawsuit against China to the PCA because the country, along with Vietnam and Malaysia, want to resolve disputes through diplomatic channels, not military measures. 

It is irrational to say that countries are not allowed to lodge a lawsuit to the PCA if China doesn’t permit, he said, noting that any sovereign nation can sue China at an international tribunal since they are not Chinese colonies. 

Marcel Winter said many countries, including the US and Japan, have protested China’s military actions and construction of artificial islands in Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes. 

He also reiterated his support for Vietnam’s legal and legitimate territorial claims in the East Sea. 

On July 12, the PCA issued the ruling on the case brought by the Philippines against China’s nine-dash line claim in the East Sea, saying China’s claims to historic rights for waters within the nine-dash line are contrary to the 1982 ​United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Hague Tribunal also finds no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the nine-dash line . 

The country has no historic title over waters of the East Sea. At the same time, China has caused permanent and irreparable harm to the coral reef ecosystem at Truong Sa archipelago, the court said.