Chang, Yen-Rong 2017-01063

Proposal for Resolution of Maritime Dispute Over West Philippine Sea

The West Philippine Sea and its islands has been a constant source of conflict between Southeast
Asian countries and China in the last few decades. This vital maritime territory serves as a passage
for international cargos that’s worth at least a trillion dollars each year and also a haven for
countless natural resources, not to mention the naval advantage the country that possesses this
territory could have. This paper serves as a proposal to resolve the disputes ongoing over the
precious territory.
Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)
Perhaps the strongest claim the Philippines have over the West Philippine Sea is the ruling of the
PCA over the aforementioned territory to side with the Philippines. The PCA serves as an
international arbitral tribunal to resolve conflicts between countries over issues such as territorial
disputes to avoid further disagreements that may lead to unnecessary violence. Even upon this
ruling, China chose to ignore this decision and proceeded to further develop the islands as if their
own. This breach of agreement should have been met with stern repercussions, as letting this
behavior of China prevail only undermines the importance of an international arbitral tribunal and
sends the message that countries can simply do whatever they want for their benefit.
Repercussions that may be administered are:

• Restrictions of membership being a United Nations member – certain temporary or

permanent restrictions can be implemented on countries that have repeatedly chosen to
ignore international rulings such as the right to vote in international affairs.
• Penalties – financial penalties such as paying fines to relevant parties (ex. China to PH or UN)
or trade agreements in favor of wronged parties
Resource and Territorial Sharing
Ambiguous territorial conflicts, if not resolved by international rulings, should just resolve to an ‘all
or none’ resolution where either every country gets a piece of it, or none does.
• Resources such as chemicals or oil can be shared in equal terms of certain volume per
country (ex. only X amount of oil to be obtained by each country involved in the dispute
each year).
• Since it’s unlikely that any country leaves the coral reefs undisturbed, one way of
distributing the resources could be distributing the amount to each country relative to the
area of coral reefs in the area they commit to preserve. The larger the area of reefs they
protect, the more (nondestructive) resources they can have a share of. Any breach of the
agreement will result to redistribution of the resources.
• The alternative being all countries commit to preserve the maritime environment in the area
by building conservation or research sites in the islands. To ease up tension, they may also
agree to only build tourist facilities in the area and prohibit construction of any military
functions.
Patrol
As a Taiwanese, I am aware that the aforementioned proposals may be too peaceful and passive to
deter the harassments of China. Southeast Asian countries involved in the dispute, especially the
Philippines, should form a united front in patrolling the area and consistently remind the Chinese
ships on the official ownership of the territory through passive aggressive nonviolent means.