China should ‘act responsibly’: DFA junks Beijing’s ‘10-dash line’ map

Department of Foreign Affairs | PHOTO: Official Gazette

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has dismissed Beijing’s 2023 standard map.

The map now has a “10-dash line” covering the eastern section of Taiwan and most of the West Philippine Sea.

DFA urges the People’s Republic of China to “act responsibly” and abide by international laws.

“The Philippines rejects the 2023 version of China’s Standard Map issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China on August 28, 2023 because of its inclusion of the nine-dashed line (now a ten-dashed line) that supposedly shows China’s boundaries in the South China Sea,” the department said in a statement on Thursday.

“This latest attempt to legitimize China’s purported sovereignty and jurisdiction over Philippine features and maritime zones has no basis under international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos),” it emphasized.

China puts one new dash in the eastern section of the self-ruled island of Taiwan while the entire Spratly Islands, which include the Kalayaan Island Group, are also inside these lines.

In 2013 the Philippines contested the then “nine-dash line” before the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The Court had rejected Beijing’s sweeping claim in 2016.

“The 2016 Arbitral Award invalidated the nine-dashed line,” DFA stressed.

“It categorically stated that ‘maritime areas of the South China Sea encompassed by the relevant part of the ‘nine-dash line’ are contrary to the Convention and without lawful effect to the extent that they exceed the geographic and substantive limits of China’s maritime entitlements under the Convention,’” the DFA said.

“The Philippines, therefore, calls on China to act responsibly and abide by its obligations under Unclos and the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award,” the department stated.

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