Red Lantern Analytica deplores People’s Republic of China’s announcement of renaming of various islands and reefs in the South China Sea by it’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The PRC has also released the so-called map of territorial baselines around the Scarborough Shoal. This is in continuation with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) unilateral attempts to claim the entirety of South China Sea. After the PRC government released a new so-called national map last year that demarcated its unlawful claim to the South China Sea by vague dash lines, this is an extension of CCP’s constant actions to solidify its superfluous assertions.
It’s clear that the PRC has published the names of places in the South China Sea as a move against the Philippines’ “Maritime Areas Act” and the “Archipelago and Sea Lanes Act”. However, PRC maintains an innocuous image by stating that the renaming is “a national effort to standardize the management of place names” including spots that “have existed for hundreds of years,” thereby pretending to be a victim rather than the aggressor.
Such a move of unilaterally naming places not only violates the territorial sovereignty and integrity of states but is also violative of international law. Feeding on CCP’s hegemonic ambitions, such acts are culpable for regional instability as they are inadvertently forced on other countries.
Red Lantern Analytica vehemently condemns the published names in this so-called map, of some islands and reefs in South China and strongly opposes the PRC tactics of militarizing the islands of South China Sea.
