‘The open sea is a common good, that China respects the treaties’

In a lecture at the Gregorian University in Rome, the former Philippine constitutional judge sounded the alarm about the consequences of Beijing’s claims in Southeast Asian waters under international law: “It is incompatible with the High Seas Treaty. If it is accept the pecking order, an arms race will be inevitable.”

Rome () – Beijing’s claims to the waters of the South China Sea are not just a local problem, but a threat to the very idea of ​​the existence of global commons, protected by international law. This is the complaint made today by the Filipino jurist Antonio T. Carpio, former member of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, in a speech he delivered in Rome, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, during the conference “Democracy for the common good”, dedicated to the topic of ethics in international relations.

“Just three weeks ago, on March 5 -remembered Judge Carpio-, the United Nations Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdictions approved the final text of the High Seas Treaty. A monumental work that It took nearly two decades of contentious negotiations among 120 nations to protect and preserve for posterity, and to share with all humanity, the living resources of our planet’s oceans that lie outside national jurisdiction.

A text welcomed by the whole world, but one that contrasts openly with the policy that Beijing pursues in Southeast Asia with increasing determination. “In the South China Sea, 25% of the waters that make up the high seas are claimed exclusively by one State: China,” explained the former member of the Manila Supreme Court. “With its infamous ‘nine-point line,’ China claims historic rights to resources that should constitute global commons. These claims supposedly date back 2,000 years, but were first publicized in the country by Chinese authorities only in 1947, and It wasn’t until 2009 that China submitted its map to the United Nations.”

“China’s nine-point line – he added – also invades large areas of the Exclusive Economic Zones of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. In the case of the Philippines, the line invades 80% of the Exclusive Economic Zone in a clear violation of the Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

These principles were already affirmed in 2016 by an arbitration by the United Nations Tribunal for the Laws of the Sea. But Beijing refuses to accept this verdict. And in 2021, China also amended its coast guard law to allow its ships to use all “necessary security and control measures.”

“Going back to the principle that whoever is strong is right,” Carpio warned, “will mean the collapse of the United Nations Charter and the end of the Convention on the Rights of the Sea. It will lead to endless wars. To defend themselves, States will have to They will have to spend much of their resources buying warships, fighter planes, missiles and other weapons, sparking a global arms race and diverting needed resources from social services, education and economic development.Non-nuclear weapon states will be at risk mercy of those who do. It will be a dangerous world to live in.”

How to react to this situation? Since the conference in Rome, Judge Carpio called for reinforcing the principles of international law through strong educational action: “They must be taught to all students in the world, from primary school to university. These fundamental principles must be part of the DNA of the citizens of all States, so that all may oppose national leaders who resort to the threat or use of force to settle any dispute between States”.

“Our generation has fortunately been spared the scourge of a third world war,” he concluded. “Therefore, it is the duty of our generation, in the words of the United Nations Charter, ‘to preserve future generations from the scourge of war, that twice during our lifetimes has inflicted untold suffering on mankind.’ And we know that a third world war could spell the end of human civilization as we know it today.”