President Ma Ying-jeou says that Taiping Island meets the criteria for an island put out in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. He was speaking Wednesday at a banquet for defense ministry personnel.
Taiping Island is a disputed piece of land in the South China Sea. The island is administered by Taiwan, but claimed by Mainland China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Ma visited the island at the end of January, a move that sparked a protest from Vietnam’s representative to Taiwan.
The Philippines argues that the island is an uninhabitable rock that does not come with any rights to an Exclusive Economic Zone. However, Ma said that Taiping Island has fresh water and forests. He said that personnel stationed on the island are able to grow vegetables and raise animals there. He said that Taiping Island qualifies as a full island under international law.
“These concrete facts all show that Taiping Island meets the requirement of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 121, which states that islands must be able to support human habitation and their own economic life," said Ma, "With these basics, we can forcefully refute the claim that Taiping Island is a rock, which the Philippines made in the case on the South China Sea it brought before The Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2013."
Ma also reiterated his call for parties with overlapping claims in the South China Sea to avoid conflict and work together to develop the area. He said that Taiwan will turn the island into a base for maritime rescue missions. He also said that Taiwan will turnTaiping Island into an ecological haven and a low-carbon island.