President Ma Ying-jeou says that Taiping Island is an island, not a rock as claimed by the Philippines. Ma made the statement Saturday in a post on his Facebook page.
Ma was refuting a claim made by Manila last November, when the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration held a hearing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
At the hearing, Manila argued that Taiping Island has no fresh water and is unfit for agricultural use. However, Ma said that this claim runs counter to what he saw when he visited Taiping Island in late January. He said the island meets the criteria for an island listed in Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The president said that if the government does not refute Manila’s claim, it will greatly damage Taiwan’s rights in the South China Sea. That’s because a state that controls an island is entitled to a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone by international law. By contrast, a rock only entitles its owner to an area extending out to 12 nautical miles.
Taiping Island is located about 1,600 kilometers away from the Port of Kaohsiung, and the Kaohsiung City Government is responsible for the island’s administration.