China has defended the nomination of its candidate to one of the seven vacant judges’ seat at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), a judicial body created to adjudicate disputes arising out of the interpretation and application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
(PH CHINA EMBASSY WEBSITE / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“The candidate nominated by China is well versed in international law and the law of the sea and has rich knowledge and practical experience in the field of international law of the sea. He fully meets the conditions stipulated in the Statute of the Tribunal and has been approved by the United Nations Asia-Pacific Group,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said over the weekend.
China’s “uncontested” candidate to the international judicial body is Jielong Duan, currently its ambassador to Hungary.
Beijing’s reaction came following the call made by US State Department Assistant Secretary for East Asia David Stilwell for the 167 UNCLOS member-countries, including the Philippines, to “carefully assess” the credentials of the Chinese candidate for the ITLOS seat in its forthcoming election in late August or early September.
In a statement last week, Stilwell said electing a Chinese official to the ITLOS is “like hiring an arsonist to run the Fire Department.”
Stilwell was obviously referring to China’s continuous refusal to comply with the July 2016 ruling by the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague that rendered an Award to the Philippine petition invalidating Beijing’s outrageous “nine-dash line” claim in the South China Sea.
Both ITLOS and the Arbitral Tribunal are independent bodies created under the UNCLOS, also known as the “Constitution for the Oceans.”
Hua, however, lashed back at the United States for always resorting to “sensational but deceitful lines to slander and attack China.”
“Assistant Secretary Stilwell showed no respect to the basic rules reached by the States Parties to UNCLOS on the election of judges to the Tribunal and the practical arrangements observed by the States Parties over time. He wanted to use his aggressive words to turn the international public opinion against China and lord over the States Parties to UNCLOS,” she said.
The US State Department’s position was backed by an American law professor and US Navy judge advocate Jonathan Odom who argued that the coming ITLOS election provides the opportunity for the international community to “show its support for the international rules-based order and demonstrate its objection to a member who has disregarded it.”
By not voting for the Beijing nominee, Odom said, “it would send a message to China’s government that objectionable behavior can damage its standing in the international community of nations.”
The other nominees for the ITLOS posts are David J. Attard (Malta), Kathy-Ann Brown (Jamaica), Ida Caracciolo (Italy), Maria Teresa Caffi Infante (Chile), Maurice K. Kamga (Cameroon), Maryikan Kulyk (Ukraine), Carlos Alberto Prates Mata (Uruguay), Rodrigo Fernandes More (Brazil), and Happias Zhou (Zimbabwe).