Manila barking up the wrong tree

The Philippines recently submitted a memorandum to the Permanent Court of Arbitration laying claim to China's Meiji Reef and Huangyan Island (or Mischief Reef and Scarborough Shoal as the Philippines calls them) and several other islands that are either submerged features or "rocks" in the South China Sea as defined under Article 121 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. But that does not mean the Philippines has fulfilled the requirements for initiating an arbitration, nor does it mean the arbitral tribunal has jurisdiction to hear the case.

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A pointless exercise in futility

By seeking arbitration the Philippines is seeking to 'legitimize' and gain US support for its invasion of China's territory