Taiwan planning int’l press tour to reinforce S. China Sea claims

PanARMENIAN.Net - Taiwan’s government says it will take international media on a tour of its largest island holding in the South China Sea in a bid to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region, the Washington Post reports.

Deputy Foreign Minister Bruce Linghu said the trip Wednesday, March 23 to Taiping aims to counter the Philippines’ contention in a case brought before the Permanent Court of Arbitration that the island is merely a rock and not entitled to territorial waters and other rights.

Linghu said the visit would demonstrate that Taiping has the ability to sustain human habitation and therefore meets the definition of an island under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He said Taiping meets that criterion “whether from the perspective of history, geography or international law.”

Taiping is the largest naturally occurring island in the Spratly group, where China has been actively producing man-made islands by piling sand atop coral reefs and adding runways, harbors and military installations.