Q: Vice president and foreign
minister Guingona of the Philippines claimed in a statement
issued on March 15 that the Huang Yan Island is a part of
the Philippine territory and its government has already
exercised sovereign right and jurisdiction over the said
waters. Whats your comment on
it?
A: The Huang Yan Island is
Chinas innate territory and the waters around it is
the traditional fishing area for the Chinese fishermen, for
which China has abundant historical and jurisprudence
backings. Ever since the ancient times, numerous documents
on the Chinese history have put down definitely in writing
that the Huang Yan Island belongs to Chinas territory.
The fact that China has sovereign right and exercises
jurisdiction over the Huang Yan Island is widely respected
by the international community.
The
Huang Yan Island has never been within the territorial
limits of the Philippines. A series of treaties on the
delimitation of the Philippine territory have stipulated
explicitly that the demarcation line in the west of the
territorial limits of the Philippines is at 118 degree east
longitude while the Huang Yan Island is to the west of it
and a component part of Chinas Zhongsha Islands. The
map published by the government of the Philippines also
clearly indicates that the Huang Yan Island is not within
the Philippine territorial limits. In recent years the
Philippine side has made territorial claims over
Chinas Huang Yan Island on grounds of its 200 nautical
miles exclusive economic zone and geographical adjacency,
which does not stand at all in international
law.
We demand that the Philippine side value
the basic fact and the basic principles of the international
law, respect Chinas territorial sovereignty and abide
by the understanding and consensus reached by the two sides
through repeated negotiations, so as to safeguard with
concrete action the stability in the South China Sea and the
overall situation of friendship between China and the Philippines.