DPP Legislators: Waters Surrounding Taiping Island Not ROC EEZ

DPP Legislators: Waters Surrounding Taiping Island Not ROC EEZ

Source: United Daily News

July 15, 2016

KMT legislators yesterday introduced a motion in the Legislature requesting that the Tsai government strengthen its protection of our fishing operations in the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surrounding Taiping Island. However, DPP legislators immediately “corrected” KMT legislators, arguing that the waters surrounding Taiping Island were not an ROC EEZ.

DPP legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) pointed out that no country, including the ROC, dared to claim an EEZ in the South China Sea, adding that the July 12 adjudication of the arbitral tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague had no real impact on the ROC’s other EEZs. DPP legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) also stated that the waters surrounding Taiping Island were not an ROC EEZ, but merely “fishing grounds.” She went on to say that she would demand relevant government agencies apologize for their inappropriate statements which had caused a panic among fishermen.

KMT legislator Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) criticized the DPP legislators’ argument, saying that if we did not claim an EEZ in the waters surrounding Taiping Island now, what could we say if they were “stolen” in the future? He opined that the DPP was yielding instead of safeguarding our sovereignty.

Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲), Deputy Minister of the Council of Agriculture, stated that no country had claimed an EEZ in the waters surrounding Taiping Island, adding that it seemed unlikely that the adjudication would affect our fishing vessels operating in the waters near Taiping Island in the future. Chen said that he would like to apologize to the nation’s fishermen who panicked because he did not explain the matter clearly from the beginning.

A fisherman from the Pingtung County said that if we did not claim an EEZ surrounding Taiping Island, the 12 nautical-mile territorial waters around the island might be too shallow for fishing operations. Moreover, he pointed out that when our fishing vessels operated outside of the ROC’s territorial waters, vessels from other countries could disrupt our fishing operations. Therefore, he concluded that if the Tsai government did not protect our fishing operations, Taiwan fishermen might have no fish to catch.

An in-house commentator of this newspaper also indicated that in the past, the Interior Ministry did not claim a 200 nautical-mile EEZ surrounding Taiping Island because it did not want to cause a stir in the region. However, even though the Interior Ministry did not declare an EEZ surrounding Taiping Island, that was not tantamount to saying the EZZ did not exist. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the waters surrounding Taiping Island are definitely an ROC EZZ. 

[Editor’s Note: According to the National University of Singapore, the map used by the US government says that Taiping Island, controlled by Taiwan, is an island instead of a rock.]

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