HONG KONG/TAIPEI – A Taiwanese group has intervened in the Philippines’ international court case against China’s claims in the South China Sea, pressing Taipei’s position that Taiwan is entitled to a swathe of the disputed waterway as an economic zone.

The unusual submission has emerged just as judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague are poised to rule on the Philippines’ landmark case, brought under the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The move could delay the judges’ ruling, now expected within two months, and potentially complicates worsening territorial disputes roiling across the vital trade route.

Last month, the judges allowed written evidence from the government-linked Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law, even though Taiwan is neither a member of the United Nations, nor a signatory to UNCLOS, legal and diplomatic sources told Reuters.

As well as reviewing several hundred pages of evidence from Taiwan, the judges have also sought further information from the Philippines and China, legal sources close to the case say.

Manila is challenging the legality of China’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, in part by arguing that no reefs, atolls or islets in the Spratly archipelago can legally be considered an island, and therefore holds no rights to an 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone.

Taiwan’s single holding of Itu Aba is the biggest feature in the Spratlys and the one some analysts believe has the strongest claim to island status and an economic zone. The Spratlys are also claimed by China, Vietnam and Malaysia while Brunei claims nearby waters.

Taiwanese officials have bristled at Philippines’ earlier evidence that Itu Aba is a “rock” that cannot support natural human habitation, so has no claims on either island-status, or an EEZ.

Citing various government reports and statements as evidence, the society’s submission to the court states “it is clear that Taiping Island (Itu Aba) is an island which can sustain human habitation and economic life of its own under….UNCLOS.”

Court officials have yet to respond to written questions from Reuters and the Philippines foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“PROTECT ANCESTRAL PROPERTY”

The Taiwanese move comes amid rising tensions, with Beijing and Washington accusing each other militarising the area as China builds facilities on its recent reef reclamations and the US increases patrols, exercises and overflights.

Reiterating Beijing’s non-acceptance of the case, China’s Foreign Ministry said the Philippines was using the case to negate China’s territorial sovereignty.

“Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait all have a responsibility to jointly protect the ancestral property of the Chinese people,” the ministry said in a faxed reply to Reuters.

While the society is technically operating as a private body, it has close ties to Taipei, including President Ma Ying-jeou, who once headed the institution and still remains on the board.

Ma staged a high-profile visit to Itu Aba in late January – one of several events orchestrated by Taiwan to push its claimed status as an island.

A spokesman for Ma told Reuters the submission was not made on behalf of the Taiwan government, but its findings were consistent with Taipei’s official stance.

While the society’s arguments might aid China’s position, Beijing is likely to be wary of any move by the judges to bolster Taiwan’s standing in the international community, analysts said.

Chinese officials have repeatedly challenged the court’s jurisdiction and the rights of the Philippines to bring the case, refusing to participate.

Beijing has ignored invitations from the court to provide its own submission, but the judges have taken into account Chinese public statements, according to court releases.

Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as a breakaway province, was not invited to participate in any way. Vietnam has provided a submission in support of Philippines’ arguments that the court has jurisdiction.

Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said it was significant the judges’ had consented to review Taiwan’s arguments.

“It demonstrates that the judges are striving to be impartial, and that they have been at pains to take into account the views of all the concerned parties, even China, which has refused to participate, and Taiwan, which isn’t a member of the UN,” he said.

While China won’t like the court giving Taiwan”international space”, on this issue “Beijing may decide to look the other way”, he said.

SEOUL – The president of China, which has grown increasingly frustrated over North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, congratulated its leader, Kim Jong Un, on his promotion to chairman of the ruling party, North Korean state media said on Tuesday.

Kim, 33, the third-generation leader of isolated North Korea, added the title of chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) on Monday, the closing day of the country’s first ruling party congress in 36 years.

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Reuters

“I wish the Korean people fresh success in carrying out the cause of socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Chairman Kim Jong Un,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told Kim in a message, North Korea’s KCNA news agency said.

“We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples and contribute to peace, stability and development in this region by steadily developing the Sino-DPRK friendship and co-operation.” DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.

China’s official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying that friendship between the two countries “was personally forged and carefully fostered by the two countries’ leaderships of the older generation”. “The traditional friendship is a treasure of both sides,” Xi added.

There was no direct mention of North Korea’s nuclear programme. North Korea said it would strengthen its defensive nuclear weapons capability, a decision adopted in defiance of UN resolutions.

China, North Korea’s chief ally and main trading partner, backed tough UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea in March following the North’s fourth nuclear test in January.

MANILA – Anti-establishment firebrand Rodrigo Duterte secured a huge win in the Philippine presidential elections, according to a poll monitor, after an incendiary campaign dominated by his profanity-laced vows to kill criminals.

Mr Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, hypnotised millions with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to the nation’s twin plagues of crime and poverty, which many believed had worsened despite strong economic growth in recent years.

And after a record turnout of voters in Monday’s elections, Mr Duterte scored a commanding victory, according to counts by various organisations.

With almost 90 per cent of the vote counted as of 7:30am Tuesday, he had some 15 million vote and an insurmountable lead of nearly 6 million votes over his nearest rival, administration candidate Mar Roxas, according to the data.

“It’s with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people,” Mr Duterte told AFP early Tuesday morning as the results came in.

“What I can promise you is that I will do my very best not just in my waking hours but even in my sleep.”

Senator Grace Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars, had collected 8.4 million votes by Tuesday morning but had already conceded just after midnight.

“As a staunch supporter of electoral reform, I have a firm belief in the voice and sentiment of our people. I honour the result of our elections,” Ms Poe told reporters in Manila.

“I congratulate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and pledge my support in working to heal our land and to unite our people toward the continued development of our country.”

In the Philippines, a winner is decided simply by whomever gets the most votes.

Mr Duterte, a pugnacious 71-year-old, surged from outsider to the top of surveys with cuss-filled vows to kill tens of thousands of criminals, threats to establish one-man rule if lawmakers disobeyed him and promises to embrace communist rebels.

He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs, while promising voters his mistresses would not cost a lot because he kept them in cheap boarding houses and took them to short-stay hotels for sex.

He caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot, and by calling the pope a “son of a whore”.

Departing President Benigno Aquino, whose mother led the democracy movement that ousted Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago, had warned repeatedly the nation was at risk of succumbing to another dictatorship.

“I need your help to stop the return of terror in our land. I cannot do it alone,” Aquino said in an appeal to voters in a final rally on Saturday in Manila for Roxas, his preferred successor and fellow Liberal Party stalwart.

In his final rally on Saturday, Mr Duterte repeated to tens of thousands of cheering fans his plans to end crime within six months of starting his presidency.

“Forget the laws on human rights,” said Mr Duterte, who has been accused of running vigilante death squads in Davao.

“If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because as the mayor, I’d kill you.”

Mr Aquino, who is limited by the constitution to a single term of six years, had overseen average annual economic growth of 6 per cent and won international plaudits for trying to tackle corruption.

However, his critics said he had done little to change an economic model that favours an extraordinarily small number of families that control nearly all key industries, and has led to one of Asia’s biggest rich-poor divides.

This criticism hurt Roxas, a member of the wealthy classes widely seen by many as lacking empathy for the poor.

Another key message of Mr Duterte’s campaign was his pledge to take on the elite, even though his vice presidential running mate was from one of the nation’s richest and most powerful families.

Ms Poe had seen her popularity slide after critics pointed to her taking US citizenship then later giving it up.

Vice-President Jejomar Binay, the early favourite, was in a distant fourth place, according to the poll monitor, after crumbling under the weight of a barrage of corruption allegations.

In an intriguing sub-plot, former dictator Marcos’s son and namesake, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., had a slight lead in the race to be elected vice president, according to the poll monitor, which would cement a remarkable political comeback for his family.

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AFP, Reuters