China to PHL: Distance not a basis to determine sovereignty

Distance is not the standard to determine territorial sovereignty, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., refuting the disputed claims made by the Philippines on the South China Sea.

"The Philippines outlined a Kalayaan Island Group on the map in 1978, saying it is near the so-called Kalayaan Island Group. Then it issued a presidential order and made into law, claiming the islands were the territory of the Philippines," Wang said.

"It was in 1978, when the Philippines had divergences with China, because it was part of the Nansha Islands. But what I want to tell the Philippines is that, you initiated your claim in 1978, but China's administrative jurisdiction of the so-called Kalayaan Island Group, the islands of the Nansha Islands, is at least 1,000 years earlier than the Philippines," he added.

The foreign minister also noted that the Philippines' current territorial claims conflicted with treaties signed in the earlier part of the previous century.

"The three treaties that stipulate the Philippines' territory, the first in 1898, the second in 1900 and the third in 1930, all regulated the Philippines' western boundary line at 118 degrees east longitude. Areas in the west of the 118 degrees east longitude do not belong to the Philippines. But the Nansha islands claimed now by the Philippines, the Huangyan Islands, are all in the west of the 118 degrees east longitude," Wang said.

Wang also questioned the validity of Philippines' current territorial claims based on proximity.

"If they are taken as treaties of the colonial period, what I want to tell everyone present is that, in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and even the 1960s, the Philippines' own laws recognized the three treaties I mentioned above, so the Philippines did not claim its territory until the 1970s on the claim that it was near the islands. Can close proximity make the islands its territory? Hawaii is very, very far from the United States, but it is the territory of the U.S., so distance is not a sufficient standard to judge territorial sovereignty," Wang said.

Wang said the general situation in the South China Sea is stable, and China adheres to solving the disputes through dialogue.

The Chinese foreign minister, who arrived in Washington, DC, Tuesday for a three-day official visit, also held meetings with US President Barack Obama and US National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Wednesday. —Reuters