China to submit claims on continental shelf to UN

MANILA, Philippines - China has decided to submit its Partial Submission Concerning the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles in the East China Sea to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The Chinese embassy in Manila was mum on the Chinese government’s action.

A report posted on the Chinese government’s web portal yesterday said the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday that technical preparations for China’s State Oceanic Administration’s submission “are close to being completed.”

According to relevant provisions of the UNCLOS, if the continental shelf of a coastal state extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, information on the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles shall be submitted by the coastal state to the commission.

The ministry said: “The commission shall make recommendations to the coastal state on matters related to the establishment of the outer limits of its continental shelf.”

The Chinese government said it is their long-standing position that “the natural prolongation of the continental shelf of China in the East China Sea extends to the Okinawa Trough and beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea of China is measured.”

China submitted to the commission its Preliminary Information Indicative of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles in May 2009: “China is making preparations for the submission of the information on the outer limits of the Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles” and that “China intends to issue a submission at an appropriate date.”

China also announced last Wednesday that it will mark up protected zones for its territorial sea base points in a move to “ensure its maritime interests.”

China’s State Oceanic Administration (SOA) released last Tuesday a series of measures to select and protect areas as the base points of the country’s territorial sea.

The report said the measures, cited in a statement also posted on the SOA’s official website, provide that the administration is responsible for supervising and guiding the selection and protection of the areas for territorial sea base points, while detailed selecting and marking work should be carried out by provincial-level governments that have jurisdiction over the area where the base points are located.

But China said the measures came only after the Chinese government announced last week the base points and baselines of the territorial waters of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands and their affiliated islets, the names and coordinates of 17 base points.

According to the SOA, a country has the same sovereignty over its territorial sea as it does over territorial land, and such sovereignty extends to the seabed and subsoil as well as the air space above it.

The document cited China’s Island Protection Law, which stipulates that the country should mark up protected areas for its territorial sea base points and implement special protection over them.

“The SOA and concerned local governments will soon start marking up these protected areas in accordance with the country’s Island Protection Law and Tuesday’s document, which also spells out standardized procedures, measures and requirements for the marking,” the statement said.

In 1996, China issued a statement announcing territorial sea base points and baselines of the Paracels (Xisha) Islands as well as part of the baselines of the territorial waters adjacent to the mainland.

The waters west of the Philippines, including some islets and shoals that China is claiming, are now officially called the West Philippine Sea, based on an administrative order of Malacañang.

On Wednesday, President Aquino said through Administrative Order 29 that had he signed on Sept. 5, he had directed the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) to “produce and publish charts and maps of the Philippines reflecting the West Philippine Sea.”

Aquino’s order was meant to define areas in the South China Sea that are indisputably part of Philippine territory. 

“The naming of the West Philippine Sea is without prejudice to the determination of the maritime domain over territories which the Republic of the Philippines has sovereignty and jurisdiction,” read the order.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has also been directed to furnish United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a copy of the new “official map,” as well as to “notify accordingly relevant international organizations” of the development, including the International Hydrographic Organization and the UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

Aquino, through AO 29, also directed the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education and state universities “to issue circulars requiring the use of said official Philippine maps in relevant subjects, researches and instructional materials, such as, among others, textbooks, instructional materials, and audio-visual presentations.”