Soochow University holds the “International Conference on the South China Sea Disputes and International Law”

An international seminar on “The South China Sea Disputes and International Law” was held by the School of Law of Soochow University on April 14, 2016. In addition to 15 speakers, President Yin-Jeou Ma, and Foreign Minister Yong-Le Lin were the guests of honor at the seminar. President Ma called on the International Court of Justice in The Hague to hand down verdicts in accordance to the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea. He reiterated the government’s determination to claim sovereignty of Taiping Island. He stressed that the Spratly, Paracel, Macclesfield and Pratas islands are territories of the R.O.C. in every aspects; history, geography, and International Law, and the fact that Taiping Island is an island instead of rock reef. His policy, Ma said, has always been to promote joint development of the area. President of Soochow University Wei-Ta Pan pointed out that this seminar was an effort in finding a new peaceful way on settling disputes in South China Sea.

This one-day international seminar was divided into three sessions: “Issues in the South China Sea and International Law”, “Arbitration of the Disputes of South China Sea between China and the Philippines”, and “Peaceful Dispute-settling Mechanism in South China Sea”, attended by a total of 25 scholars, domestic and foreign, including ex-Dean of Soochow Law school in Soochow Jia-Ruei Cheng and Ms. Cheng; Director of Taiwan Society of International Law Nian-Zu Lee; Professor with the Department of Law Soochow University Yan-Sen Deng; ex-Dean of Soochow Law school Jhen Yang; ex- Minister Plenipotentiary in Holy See Ruei-Ming Dai; Professor of Fu-Jen University Zhu-Sheng Du; Chairman of China Shipping Yin-Gang Peng; CEO of AGCMT Creation Ke-tong Che, Pro. Kuo-Tsai Chiao; Adjunct Professor Soochow University Yan-Huei Song; Professor with National Taiwan Ocean University Sheng-Ti Gao; Professor in National Taiwan Normal University Guan-Xiong Wang; Associate Professor in Department of Law in National Taipei University Zhen-Yu Wang, and Assistant Professors of Law in Soochow University Wen-Xiang Gong, and Chong-Yang Chen.

Philippines sought arbitration against China on the basis of The United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea in January, 2013. During the second round debate in November 2015, Taiping Island was referred to as “rock reef” instead of “island” suggesting that it cannot have maritime sovereignty over 12 nautical miles. President Ma tried to present the fact that Taiping Island is an “island” instead of “rock reef” to International Court of Justice. On 15 April, Soochow University joined with Ministry of Foreign Affairs to arrange research tours for domestic and foreign scholars to visit Taiping Island in order to demonstrate that it is habitable island rather than the so-called “rock reef”. To defend sovereignty over Taiping Island the Executive Yuan and Ministry of Foreign Affair have issued statements many times to ascertain that Taiping Island is habitable and also sustainable in economic performances and therefore met requirements of article 121of the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, and hence Republic of China has complete sovereignty over Taiping Island.

After this seminar, papers on the issues of South China Sea will be published by the Brill and Martinus Nijhoff, a famous international publisher in The Hague, to keep the whole world informed of the truth of the South China Sea sovereignty issues.