Context
The European Union and 14 countries have reaffirmed the 2016 South China Sea arbitral ruling, declaring China’s expansive maritime claims inconsistent with international law. China has rejected the ruling, maintaining that it is “null and void” and has no binding effect.
Explanation:
- The South China Sea is a strategically important water body connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, through which nearly one-third of global maritime trade passes.
- China claims most of the sea through the Nine-Dash Line, overlapping with the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia.
- In 2013, the Philippines initiated arbitration under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982.
- In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), The Hague, ruled that China’s Nine-Dash Line has no legal basis under UNCLOS and that several disputed features are rocks or low-tide elevations, not full islands generating EEZs.
- UNCLOS defines Territorial Sea (12 nautical miles), Contiguous Zone (24 nautical miles), Exclusive Economic Zone (200 nautical miles), and Continental Shelf, forming the legal basis for maritime rights.
- The dispute highlights issues of freedom of navigation, rules-based international order, maritime security, and peaceful dispute settlement under international law.
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South China Sea Arbitral Award: UNCLOS and Maritime Law