Jamie Wang
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Born and raised in China, had lived in Swiss and GermanyNov 25
Why does China persist in aggressively violating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which China is a signatory?
Something that I admire about Americans is that they could confidently comment something they have no idea about.

Convention & Related Agreements
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world's oceans and seas establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources. It enshrines the notion that all problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be addressed as a whole. The Convention was opened for signature on 10 December 1982 in Montego Bay, Jamaica. This marked the culmination of more than 14 years of work involving participation by more than 150 countries representing all regions of the world, all legal and political systems and the spectrum of socio/economic development. At the time of its adoption, the Convention embodied in one instrument traditional rules for the uses of the oceans and at the same time introduced new legal concepts and regimes and addressed new concerns. The Convention also provided the framework for further development of specific areas of the law of the sea. The Convention entered into force in accordance with its article 308 on 16 November 1994, 12 months after the date of deposit of the sixtieth instrument of ratification or accession. Today, it is the globally recognized regime dealing with all matters relating to the law of the sea. The Convention ( full text ) comprises 320 articles and nine annexes, governing all aspects of ocean space, such as delimitation, environmental control, marine scientific research, economic and commercial activities, transfer of technology and the settlement of disputes relating to ocean matters. Some of the key features of the Convention are the following: * Coastal States exercise sovereignty over their territorial sea which they have the right to establish its breadth up to a limit not to exceed 12 nautical miles; foreign vessels are allowed "innocent passage" through those waters; * Ships and aircraft of all countries are allowed "transit passage" through straits used for international navigation; States
https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm
Let’s see what UN has to say about UNCLOS:

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world's oceans and seas establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources.

It’s about “uses of the oceans and their resources”..

So how China violated UNCLOS? I mean, the US is not even part of this agreement.

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Scott Steward
· November 28
Whether or not the US is a signatory is completely irrelevant to the issue. This is about CHINA! Try to keep up!

China is a signatory, and violates the agreement because it is incompatible with their imperialistic goals, particularly its actions to create military installations on islands that don’t belong to them, to control by force and intimidation territory and waters that don’t belong to China. The 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration case, The Republic of the Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China, found that China’s “Nine Dash Line” claim was invalid, and China does not have territorial jurisdiction over the lands and waters that it seeks to dominate.

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Jamie Wang
· November 29

Read the fucking answer, please, sir.

I know that you are from cold war era and is a treasure from the period. You have natual hate against China and anything different.

But please, sir, read my fucking answer care-the-fuck-fully. UNCLOS is not about land dispute or territorial water.

Scott Steward
I suggest you rad the report of the Arbitration, but course China knows the decision, it just refuses to abide by the agreement it signed or the arbitration which it lost, because it has military and imperialism ambitions for the South China Sea, Taiwan, and the entire Eastern Pacific region for which it is willing to publicly breach any international agreement it signed when that gets in their way.
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Alex McCutcheon
· November 29
Thing is, UNCLOS doesn't forbid anything that China has actually been doing, nor does it forbid China (or anyone else) from making the claims it makes..

By the way, the SCS is international waters. Most surrounding countries have laid claim to some of the islands therein, and these claims often contradict each other, so ongoing negotiation is needed.

But there's nothing “illegal” about claiming and controlling those islands, nor defending those claims, nor conducting commercial or military activities or installing facilities. China and Vietnam have been doing all this for while now, though Vietnam started much earlier and still controls more islands than China does. But they are not breaking any particular “law” in the process.

The 2016 case attempted to apply outside arbitration to a case that claimant states were in continuing bilateral talks to resolve directly. China rejected this fantasy notion that there might exist some higher power that could dictate its interpretation of the UNCLOS convention to sovereign states forcing one to cede territory to another. A dispute resolution tribunal is not a court of law, and the norms and processes of international relations do not supersede the actual laws of any country.

Scott Steward
Another Chinese mouthpiece. What a surprise! The 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration case, The Republic of the Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China proves that you are wrong. China as a signatory agreed to the provisions of UNCLOS, until of course those provisions to maintain international peace and protect the proper rights of all nations conflicted with China’s imperialist and militarist ambitions. That is what is happening. China only keeps its word when it wants to, and breaks its word when it serves its ambitions.
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Paulius Bindokas
· November 30
This type of question is dangerous, since it leads the uninformed into drawing conclusions, which are often different from reality. In terms of the convention itself, it does have some bearing on the topic, since it does define the term “territorial sea”. Territorial seas are confirmed through an agreement of two nations and I would guess that the poster of the original question is referring to what they would call “encroachment” onto Taiwanese territorial waters. However, that point is mute, since Taiwan is a part of China, so Taiwan’s territorial waters are China’s territorial waters and, as such, China has built their bases on their own islands, or, created their own islands in their own waters.

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Lim San
· December 2
To be more correct, it should be ROC's territorial waters. Not Taiwan's. Taiwan is just the name of a province. ROC was a nation.