Chinese youth protests S.China Sea dispute case
As the long-awaited court decision on a case filed by the Philippines against China over the South China Sea disputes approaches, young Chinese citizens have begun to spontaneously organize and stage boycotts against the ruling.
A dozen young Chinese international law scholars in the Netherlands recently issued an open letter to contest the "erroneous exercise of jurisdiction and abuse of the legal process in the South China Sea arbitration."
In the open letter, Peng Qinxuan, 29, the initiator and a doctoral candidate of international law at Utrecht University, and the others clarify that "state consent is the basis of the compulsory arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the UNCLOS)."
They also maintain that the real disputes between China and the Philippines and those under arbitration are disputes over territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, for which there is no mutual state consent to the compulsory jurisdiction.
"The arbitration and the Philippines' appeal are a provocation. Under the influence of international political powers, China and the Philippines would trust each other less, which runs counter to the peaceful settlement of international disputes," Peng told the Global Times.
As of Monday, the open letter had gained more than 5,000 supporters online from all over the world, said Peng, adding that so far, the open letter has been translated into nearly 10 languages, such as French and German, and has won the support of students from a dozen of countries.
However, supporters from the US, Australia and Japan were few, said Peng.
"We decided to issue the open letter to reveal the essence of this case and speak out as Chinese youth scholars on international law, especially in such an international society with so many biased judgments," Peng said.
Meanwhile, "Taiwan Beiju," a Taiwan-based Facebook page that makes videos on history and politics, posted an original video on Thursday, introducing the history and the disputes of the South China Sea, and claimed that Taiwan belongs to China, and that people from across the Straits should defend the maritime jurisdiction.
The video has been viewed more than 260,000 times and collected 5,000 likes on Facebook as of press time, and it quickly went viral on Sina Weibo. Its hashtag "it is everyone's duty to defend the jurisdiction of the South China Sea that we inherited from our ancestors" has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
"There is solid evidence to show the South China Sea has belonged to China since the Tang Dynasty (618-907). No other country should touch our ancestors' heritage," Veve Power, a Facebook user, said.
"If the Chinese mainland loses jurisdiction over the South China Sea, Taiwan would also lose its jurisdiction over some islands in the Dongsha area. Whether you admit it or not, the interests of the two sides are closely connected," "Mudan Lizhi Zaiyiqi 1998," a Sina Weibo user, said.
Additionally, students organizations from many Chinese mainland universities such as Shandong University, Hainan University and Ningbo University have jointly initiated a topic on Sina Weibo under the hashtag "do not accept the arbitration." The post has been viewed 1.2 million times as of press time.
Photos posted online also showed students from several universities, including Yanshan University in Hebei Province and Xiamen University in Fujian Province, protesting with signs which read, "defend the South China Sea sovereignty and protect our territory."
