A group of Chinese academics has claimed that the northernmost Batanes Islands belong to China through Taiwan, in what West Philippine Sea monitor SeaLight described as a possible “lawfare” effort to bolster Beijing’s territorial claims.
SeaLight Executive Director Raymond Powell warned the academic discussion was “a pretext to escalate.”
“China saw an opportunity…They assembled the scholars to give them the legal overlay, the veneer to be able to justify what they wanted to do anyway. We call this a pretext to escalate. If the pretext was the talks, the escalation now is underway.”
“They have now assembled the beginnings of their lawfare… This is Chinese lawfare in practice, and we’re seeing it real time,” he added.
In a post on Facebook, SeaLight said about a dozen researchers from leading Chinese universities and research institutes argued that Philippine sovereignty over Batanes allegedly lacks historical and legal basis during a symposium held on June 30 in Guangzhou and hosted by Jinan University.
Quoting a report by South App in Guangdong, SeaLight said the participants “unanimously concluded that the Batan Islands (Batanes) constitute a natural geographical extension of Taiwan, with sovereignty belonging to China, and that so-called Japan-Philippines maritime delimitation negotiations in the area hold no legal validity.”
‘Trial balloon, muddying the waters’
Powell said while the position has not been endorsed by any Chinese government official, he said the...
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