BY JOHNNY DAYANG
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CHINA’S bullying in South China Seas has been viewed as insuperable. A great part of this notion lies in the perceived arrogance of Chinese leaders who have subtly used military might, economic clout, and demographic hegemony as tools to promote their country’s influence.
Highlighting this egotism was the application of the “nine-dash line,” which is nothing but an imaginary concept with no basis in law and is historically flawed. To dispute this claim, the Philippines, by its lonesome, raised the issue to the United Nations where, through an arbitral ruling at The Hague, the Filipinos shamed the Beijing masters.
Ironically, the same country that fought China alone in the Permanent Court of Arbitration has been frustratingly passive in celebrating its victory. Worse, the government, for reasons that are not tenable, allied with China in ways that left observers perplexed and cynical.
But that lonely journey has now turned into an exciting struggle. Last May 26, 2020, Indonesia, enraged by China’s imperious intrusion of its claimed economic zone, displayed its razor-sharp teeth by writing the UN secretary to make palpable and pivotal moves that should address what amounts to Chinese land-grabbing and the trampling of rights of sovereign nations.
Central to the letter was the citation of the 2016 arbitral ruling which overturned China’s non-existent claims and the violations it committed against the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Observers strongly believe the Indonesian gambit, beyond being deemed a game-changer, can provoke the realization of a common ASEAN stance against Beijing.
Over a month ago, Vietnam, already at loggerheads with Beijing several times in the past, lodged an official protest with the embassy in Hanoi after a Chinese maritime surveillance ship sank a Vietnamese fishing boat in Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea. Like the sinking of a Filipino boat at Reed Bank in 2019, the Vietnam craft was rammed and sunk.
The Vietnamese foreign ministry promptly issued a statement, saying the sinking of its fishing boat was “an act that violated Vietnam’s sovereignty…and threatened the lives and damaged the property and legitimate interests of Vietnamese fishermen.”
Two weeks later, Vietnam filed again a protest after China announced the establishment of separate administrative districts on Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands, both under the control of China’s Sansha City. For the second time, the issue of sovereignty was raised.
Pundits agree the twin incidents that infuriated Vietnam was most likely part of the triggers that compelled Indonesia to finally air its discontent in the UN. China’s ego, without really saying it, has been wounded the second time around.
