Professor Carlyle Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy

(VOVworld) – International experts say China has no legal foundation for declaring its sovereignty within the U-shaped line in the East Sea. This was the consensus at a seminar entitled “The East Sea and Asia Pacific in Transition: Exploring Options for Managing Disputes” held in Washington, DC, last Thursday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  The scholars said that China’s invitation of bids to survey and explore 9 oil and gas blocks located in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf is illegal. Today, VOV highlights opinions by several international scholars and politicians on China’s recent actions.

Seminar participants shared the view that China’s declarations and policies concerning the East Sea are baseless and don’t conform to international law. Professor Carlyle Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy said China’s U-shaped line, created in 1948, is not legal because it was drawn before the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was signed in 1982. International legal experts agreed that China’s U-shaped line doesn’t meet international standards of map drawing. Marvin Ott, a professor from Johns Hopkins University, said that China is spending a great deal of strength and prestige defending its declaration of illegitimate sovereignty. Professor Ott explains ‘International lawyers, scholars, officials, and experts in other countries, everyone who’s looked at this believes this dotted line doesn’t have legitimacy, on the international law does not. And that’s the problem by claiming the entire South China Sea which looks as the line does and no other major countries in the world can support that. The US can’t support it, India can’t support, the European Union can’t, Australia can’t, and Japan can’t, nobody can’.

Senator Joe Lieberman, President of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs said that China will be more isolated regionally and internationally if it continues to apply these policies in the East Sea. Joe said ‘The claims that China has made over South China Sea that the initial aggressive actions it now has, I think, will lead to the actions that other countries are taking. And that’s why I hope China will step back and enter a never process that can resolve the issue’.

Senator John McCain, a recent US presidential candidate, said prior to the seminar that China is becoming an economic power and needs a lot of raw materials including oil. He said that China has recognized a huge reserve of oil in the East Sea and has therefore declared its sovereignty over the area.  Senator McCain said ‘In the past, they had claimed the dotted lie that the South China Sea is Chinese territory. That’s not true. The South China Sea is international waters and all of us want peaceful negotiations between China and other nations in the region to resolve the issue peacefully. The confrontation that is taking place adds tension in the region. That absolutely needs to be avoided and negotiation is the answer.’

East Sea issues are serious and complex, directly affecting the interests of  all nations that border the sea.