China – Philippines Borders.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has lambasted the Philippines for choosing “to ignore China’s goodwill and sincerity”, after the Philippines tried to protect its own EEZ, when the Philippine Coast Guard removed a floating barrier that China had installed in the Scarborough Shoal in September 2023.
25 September 2023: The Philippines has condemned the Chinese coast guard for installing what it called a “floating barrier” in an attempt to prevent Filipino boats from entering and fishing in the southeast portion of the Scarborough Shoal, in the West Philippine Sea.
The Scarborough Shoal is about 108 nautical miles (124 miles, 200km) west of the Philippine island of Luzon.
The Scarborough Shoal is inside the Philippines “Exclusive Economic Zone” (EEZ), which is an area of the ocean, generally extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles or 370kms) beyond a nation’s territorial sea, within which a coastal nation has jurisdiction over both living and nonliving resources.
Bajo de Masinloc, also known as the Scarborough Shoal, is a small but strategic reef and fertile fishing ground 108 nautical miles west of the Philippine island of Luzon, well inside the Philippines EEZ.
China seized control of the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012.
The Spanish 18th-century map of the Philippines “Carta hydrographica y chorographica de las Islas Filipinas” (1734) shows the Scarborough Shoal, as part of the Philippines but named as Panacot Shoal.
On 12 July 2016, the Arbitral Tribunal formed under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) issued its award on the case brought by the Philippines against China over maritime claims in the South China Sea. The landmark victory categorically declared that China’s nine-dash line claim is incompatible with the UNCLOS.
The Chinese EEZ.
This image shows the official Chinese Exclusive Economic Zone, in full red, and the zone that China claims, by the red dotted line.
The Philippines EEZ.
This image shows the official Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone, with the red dot/dash line showing the section that is illegally claiming.
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