E-book debunking Chinese historic sea claim to be published in Mandarin

Senior Philippine Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said a Mandarin version of his new e-book debunking China's massive and historic ownership over the South China Sea will be released soon for the Chinese people to try to convince them that their government's claim over the resource-rich waters has no legal basis.

Formally launched on Thursday, Carpio’s book, Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, is a compilation of all his lectures on the South China Sea and its historical, legal, economic and political aspects.

Carpio said the book aims to educate Filipinos of the Philippines’ maritime entitlements in the South China Sea and the vast resources within it that belongs to them and the future generation as affirmed by an international tribunal last year.

It features a compilation of interactive maps, including one dated 1734, which was submitted by the Philippine government to an international tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands when it filed a case against China. The map was used to back Manila’s claim over parts of the waters it now calls West Philippine Sea.

“This e-book is intended to convince the Chinese people, that the nine-dash line has no legal or historical basis,” said Carpio, one of the country’s leading maritime legal experts. “That is why a mandarin version of this book will be released hopefully before the end of the year.”

Carpio was referring to China’s nine-dash line map - a tongue-shaped enclosure that encompasses almost the entire South China Sea.

Amid China’s strict media and information censorship, Carpio admitted that book in its printed form can never be distributed in China.

“It will be banned,” he said, adding he hopes the book’s electronic version, through multiple download sources, would be able to reach the Chinese people.

The South China Sea — a cluster of islands, reef, shoals and coral outcrops — is believed to be sitting atop rich oil and mineral reserves and straddles one of the world’s vital sealanes.

China insists ownership of nearly 90 percent of the waters even as it overlaps with the territories of its smaller neighbors and rival claimants like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

Competing claims to the waters and its resources have long been feared as Asia’s next potential flashpoint for a major armed conflict.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 12, 2016 delivered a sweeping victory to the Philippines on the case it filed against China and declared as illegal China's claim over nearly the entire waters.

It also declared that Beijing violated the rights of Filipinos, who were blocked by Chinese Coast Guard from fishing in the disputed Scarborough Shoal off northwestern Philippines.

China has ignored the decision, calling it “ill-founded” and “naturally null and void.”

While ignoring the ruling, China has pressed ahead with its construction of seven artificial islands in the South China Sea. Now completed, the islands have been equipped with military facilities, runways and surface-to-air missiles.

Such move sparked alarm among Southeast Asian nations, Japan, Australia and the United States, fearing that it would increase tensions and hinder freedom of movement in the area where a large volume if international trade passes through.

“The Chinese government will not comply with the ruling of the arbitral tribunal unless the Chinese people understand that the nine-dash line is baseless,” Carpio said.

“I believe that like all other people of the world, the Chinese people are inherently good, but their government has drilled into their minds that they own the South China Sea since 2000 years ago,” said Carpio.

Such assertion, Carpio said, is “utterly false” and unacceptable under modern-day international laws.

“Once the Chinese people realize the falsity of the nine-dash line, they themselves will be too ashamed to press the nine-dash claim before the world. That will be the time when the Chinese govt can comply with the ruling of the arbitral tribunal,” Carpio said.

Apart from Mandarin, the 264-page e-book will also be released in Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, and Spanish.

Carpio said translating it into several languages aims to inform other coastal states of the world that it is in their national interest to help the Philippines protect its maritime entitlements.

“If China can grab for itself the maritime entitlements of the Philippines in violation of international law, then other coastal states may also lose their maritime entitlements to their more powerful neighboring states,” Carpio said.

Once that happens, Carpio said: “That would be the end of the rule of law in the oceans and seas of our planet.” — BAP, GMA News