ANNUAL REPORT

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(UNCLOS); * (2) certain land features in the South China Sea are
rocks, islands, or low-tide elevations; † and (3) China has interfered
with the Philippines’ right to exploit resources within the latter’s
claimed waters. 1
In a blow to the credibility of China’s claims, the tribunal ruled
overwhelmingly in the Philippines’ favor. The most notable findings
of the 479-page ruling included:
• China’s claims to historic rights and resources within the ninedash
line (see Figure 1) have no legal basis. 2
• None of China’s claimed land features in the Spratly Islands
are islands (and as such, none of China’s claimed features can
generate more than 12 nautical miles [nm] of surrounding
maritime territory). 3
• China violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights by conducting
the following activities in the Philippines’ exclusive economic
zone: interfering with Philippine oil exploration activities, prohibiting
Filipino fishermen from operating, failing to stop Chinese
fishermen from operating, and building artificial islands. 4
• China violated its marine environmental protection obligations
under UNCLOS by causing ‘‘severe harm to the coral reef environment’’
with its land reclamation activities and by not preventing
the harvesting of endangered species by Chinese fishermen.
5
While many countries in the region and around the world responded
to the ruling with statements of support for international
law, 6 China’s initial response was to reject and attempt to discredit
the ruling. 7 Also, in early August, China’s Supreme People’s Court
announced that foreign fishermen who illegally fish in China’s ‘‘jurisdictional
waters’’ could be imprisoned for up to one year. 8 The
actions China could take in the longer term to consolidate its territorial
claims and register its displeasure with the ruling include,
among other things, one or more of the following: increasing its
presence and activities in disputed waters; adding arms or defenses
to land features it occupies; conducting land reclamation on Scarborough
Reef—a coral reef atoll claimed by China, the Philippines,
and Taiwan—over which China effectively secured control in 2012;
and declaring an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) ‡ over part
of the South China Sea.
* China is a party to UNCLOS.
† The distinction, as defined by UNCLOS, between an island, rock, and low-tide elevation is
important because each type of feature generates a different maritime entitlement. Islands,
which must be above water at high tide and be capable of sustaining human habitation or economic
activity of their own, can generate exclusive economic zones. (An exclusive economic zone
is a 200-nautical-mile zone extending from a country’s coastline, within which that country can
exercise exclusive sovereign rights to explore for and exploit natural resources, but over which
it does not have full sovereignty.) Rocks, which are defined as being above water at high tide
but unable to sustain human habitation or economic activity, only generate a 12-nautical-mile
territorial sea. Low-tide elevations are land features that are submerged at high tide. Unless
they are located within the territorial sea of another island or mainland coastline, they do not
generate any maritime entitlements. UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ‘‘Part 8: Regime
of Islands’’; UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ‘‘Part 2: Territorial Sea and Contiguous
Zone’’; and UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ‘‘Part 5: Exclusive Economic Zone.’’
‡ An ADIZ is a publicly declared area, established in international airspace adjacent to a
state’s national airspace, in which the state requires that civil aircraft provide aircraft identifiers
and location. Its purpose is to allow a state the time and space to identify the nature of
approaching aircraft before those aircraft enter national airspace in order to prepare defensive
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