South China Sea dispute gets more complicated for Asean

THE new claim in the South China Sea dispute has made that complex situation considerably more difficult for Asean. A Taiwan government-linked organisation, the Chinese Society of International Law, has made a submission to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. It seems Taiwan wants a swath of the region as its own exclusive economic zone.

That this claim came just as the court was set to issue judgement on the Philippines' case which Manila pursued under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) cannot be a coincidence. The court is now expected to delay making a ruling by about two months. This last-minute intervention by a party that is neither a member of the United Nations or a signatory to Unclos may indicate party-to-party cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party and the outgoing Kuomintang administration in Taiwan. Since Taiwan's general election early this year when the KMT was swept out of office, losing both the presidency and its majority in the legislature, the party and the outgoing president have made use of their remaining time in office to entrench their pro-China policies. Knowing that the Democratic Progressive Party will take office only on May 20, the KMT has done everything in its power to ensure that the in-coming administration of Tsai Ing-wen is locked into its own longstanding policies on economic ties with China as well as in the South China Sea dispute. After all it was the KMT, then in power on the mainland in 1947, that produced the infamous nine-dash map that virtually claimed all the seas in South-east Asia for China. Taiwan now has control of only one island in the Spratly Islands. So the larger purpose of Taipei's sudden intervention must be to show that KMT remains faithful to its claim that the entire South China Sea belongs to China - and to provide Beijing more time for its diplomatic manoeuvres.

Indeed, Beijing has not been idle while the court was assessing Manila's claims. Although the Chinese say they will ignore any ruling the Hague court makes, they also understand that their claims will lose legitimacy internationally if the court rules for the Philippines. So Taiwan's claim may serve to buy time for the new administration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to take office and change its foreign policy. Mr Duterte says he will not pursue Manila's claims in return for Chinese aid in building several railway infrastructure projects. He also seems open to joint exploration for resources of the disputed seas if the current multilateral approach does not yield a good result within two years.