UNCLOS has no jurisdiction over territorial issues: S. African commentator

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has no jurisdiction over territorial issues and maritime delimitation, a well-known South African commentator wrote in The Star newspaper on Thursday.

The West sees the South China Sea arbitration as an important crossroads in China's rise as a global power, but there are misperceptions, Shannon Ebrahim wrote in the commentary titled "How West misperceives and misconceives Chinese politics."

"It is not; it has already risen. China is actually 10 steps ahead of the West in most cases, and Shanghai makes New York look like the old world," she said.

One mistake the West has made is to view the arbitral tribunal on the South China Sea issue as a legitimate process in international law, but there was no legal basis for the tribunal to begin with, Ebrahim said.

The compulsory arbitration was unilaterally initiated in 2013 by the administration of former Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III, whose term ended on June 30. It issued an award on July 12 that sweepingly sides with Manila's claims.

The arbitration was not only outside the jurisdiction of UNCLOS, Ebrahim wrote in the popular South African newspaper, "it also disregarded the preference of China for direct negotiations and consultations with the Philippines."

The new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has indicated a readiness to discuss with China about the South China Sea issue.

"This leaves open the possibility of negotiations, which China has always called for, China will not, however, accept the tribunal's ruling as the basis for settling the dispute," Ebrahim said.

"The Western media is used to rallying around a cause without dissecting the credibility of that cause, and this is one such instance where the Western media has arguably been on the wrong side of history," she said.

The Washington Post has carried frequent headlines suggesting that China intends turning the South China Sea into an internal lake or a Chinese lake, without providing any proof to back up such claims.

"The intended effect was to create the impression that China is the aggressor and not prepared to operate within the confines of international law," Ebrahim said.

She also noted that the reality of the situation is that the arbitral tribunal has no mechanism for enforcing its decision, and China will do exactly as it has stated all along -- simply ignore its findings.

In 1986, the United States ignored a ruling from the International Court of Justice that declared its mining in the harbors of Nicaragua illegal.

Washington is not a UNCLOS member. This leaves it with little credibility in terms of commenting on matters regarding adherence to UNCLOS.

"It is an even greater double standard for the U.S. to have provided the rear guard support to the Philippines to unilaterally initiate the arbitration," Ebrahim said, adding that the arbitration is itself in violation of UNCLOS. Endi