Are China and the Philippines both looking to claim the moral high ground in their maritime standoff by playing the environmental card?
As it has in some previous years, China is implementing a temporary fishing ban in northern portions of the South China Sea. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported fisheries officials as saying the ban, to run from May 16 to Aug. 1, is meant to prevent overfishing from depleting stocks in the area, which sustains fishing communities around the region. Chinese officials said the area covered will include Scarborough Shoal, which the Philippines claims as part of its territory and which is the site of the five-week sea squabble between the two countries.
The Philippines responded by announcing plans for its own fishing ban. Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario Monday said President Benigno Aquino III is also keen to replenish fishing stocks.
We do not recognize China’s fishing ban inasmuch as portions of the ban encompass our Exclusive Economic Zone, Mr. del Rosario said in a statement, referring to the 200-nautical-mile zone granted to the Philippines under the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the president has decided that in view of the accelerated depletion of our marine resources, it would be advisable for us to issue our own fishing ban for a period of time to replenish our fish stock. Scarborough Shoal sits 118 nautical miles (220 kilometers) off the country’s northwest coast.
The removal of the fishing nets is interpreted in some quarters as a novel means of de-escalating a tense standoff at Scarborough Shoal. The showdown began on April 8 when Filipino sailors attempted to arrest Chinese fishermen said by Philippine authorities to be taking protected species such as sharks and giant clams.
Since then, Chinese coast-guard and fisheries-protection vessels have flocked to the area, which is also claimed byChina, to prevent any arrests. A war of words between the two countries has worsened, and Filipino protesters have rallied not just outside the Chinese embassy in Manilawhere about 200 demonstrators gathered last weekbut in cities as far away as Los Angeles and Washington.
With fish off-limits because of the ban, there is no reason for vessels to congregate in the area and both sides could withdraw without losing face, analysts say.
At the same time, fishing bans could help China and the Philippines curry favor with the increasingly strong environmentalist groups operating in a number of the countries that claim sovereignty over all or part of the South China Sea.
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