Daily Tribune (Philippines)

Two crucial treaties

“To

cut to the chase, most scholars agree that most of the present problems in the SCS stem from the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty signed by Japan and 48 other countries, including the Philippine­s.

Reacquaint­ing ourselves with recent history helps in understand­ing why China is acting the way she presently is in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

And we needn’t go back deep into history’s long shadows, limiting ourselves instead to Asian history of the 1946-1952 period.

Understand­ing these tumultuous years following the Second World War is necessary since these formed the basis for the paradoxica­l and often complex tensions now engulfing the WPS and the whole South China Sea (SCS).

To cut to the chase, most scholars agree that most of the present problems in the SCS stem from the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty signed by Japan and 48 other countries, including the Philippine­s.

The purpose of the treaty was to formally end the war between the Allies and Japan and to make post-war arrangemen­ts in the AsiaPacifi­c region, including on the ownership issues now plaguing the suddenly important Spratlys and Paracel Islands, which Japan seized and occupied in 1939.

Under the treaty, Japan renounced its sovereignt­y over the Spratlys and Paracels. It, however, did not reassign these islands to any country after renouncing her claim.

As a consequenc­e, one scholar says these islands remain legally under the collective custody of the treaty’s 48 other parties — including two claimants to the islands, the Philippine­s and Vietnam.

Taiwan, however, as early as 1947 officially asserted her claim to these islands by issuing the “ninedotted line,” which later became the infamous “nine-dash line.”

China has since claimed this “nine-dash line.” China, however, refuses to clarify the limits of the “nine-dash line” and also rejects the claims of other claimant countries.

Taiwan had also signed a separate bilateral peace treaty with Japan just hours before the San Francisco Treaty entered into effect on 28 April 1952.

This bilateral treaty basically reaffirmed the San Francisco Treaty’s terms, including the nonreassig­nment status of the Spratlys and Paracel Islands.

Many now believe, including China, that the 1952 Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty is strongly linked to the sovereignt­y status of the Spratlys and Paracels.

A historical aside: China, which was then in the third year of Communist rule, was not invited to participat­e in the San Francisco peace conference largely because conference organizers disagreed about which government — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing or the Republic of China (ROC) in Taipei — truly represente­d China.

The late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai angrily denounced and rejected the treaty. Zhou didn’t realize then, says his recent biographer Chen Lai, that his rejection was “one of the deepest underlying causes of the territoria­l disputes that now embroil China and the other countries in the East and South China Seas.”

At any rate, such historical dealings complicate China’s expansive claims since China presently is noticeably silent and hesitant about the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty and its preceding San Francisco Peace Treaty.

China’s silence and hesitation likely means that China won’t acknowledg­e the legitimacy of these treaties. But China also partly relies on these two treaties.

A Chinese scholar says the silence and hesitancy are because the two treaties complicate China’s position on Taiwan.

“Without the historical agreement signed by the ROC,

Beijing’s claim to the South

China Sea is potentiall­y mor e vulnerable to attack from other claimants.

But at the same time, if

Beijing takes advantage of the treaty, then there is at least some validity to the idea that the ROC, as a legal entity, continued to exist beyond 1949. This is something Beijing also rejects,” says the Chinese scholar of the legal complexiti­es China faces.

The two treaties, meanwhile, also relate to the Philippine­s’ victory at the Permanent Court of Arbitratio­n.

After our arbitratio­n win, Beijing issued a declaratio­n which conspicuou­sly carried provisions from the two treaties, which only goes to show that China wants to take advantage of the two treaties she doesn’t even recognize.

Such are some of whims of recent Asian history which we must again reacquaint ourselves with, if only to contend with all the overwhelmi­ng pro-China propaganda consuming some of us Filipinos.

“Under

the treaty, Japan renounced its sovereignt­y over the Spratlys and Paracels. It, however, did not reassign these islands to any country after renouncing her claim.