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South China Sea: Hague case
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A group of Taiwanese lawmakers will fly to Taiping Island on Wednesday to underscore Taipei’s claim. Photo: EPA

Taiwanese lawmakers, fishing flotilla bound for Taiping Island

A group of Taiwanese lawmakers will board a military transport plane bound for Taiping Island in the South China Sea on Wednesday to promote Taipei’s claims to sovereignty in the contested waters.

Fishermen also plan to head with a flotilla of boats to Taiping to uphold what they say are Taiwan’s fishing rights to the area.

The moves come a week after an international tribunal in The Hague rejected Taipei’s right to an exclusive economic zone around Taiping.

“We will board the transport plane in Pingtung, southern Taiwan, on Wednesday morning for Taiping, where we will offer our support to soldiers and officers who have safeguarded our territory there,” opposition Kuomintang lawmaker Johnny Chiang said on Monday.

Chiang, who organised the trip with six other legislators, including three from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said he invited Defence Minister Feng Shih-kuan but Feng declined.

Chiang said the military told him it was a “sensitive” time for Feng to make such a trip.

In a statement on Monday night, the military did not explain why Feng did not accept the invitation, but stressed it had long planned for the defence of Taiping.

KMT legislator Lu Yu-ling said she decided to go on the trip because she wanted to tell local fishermen they had the parliament’s support for their plan to sail to Taiping.

The 46 hectares in the South China Sea that could change cross-strait ties

The fishermen from Pingtung have urged others to join the flotilla in protest at the “weak response” from the government of President Tsai Ing-wen to the tribunal’s ruling.

The court ruled on July 12 that none of the Spratly Islands, including Taiping, also known as Itu Aba, could be considered islands and therefore were not entitled to 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zones under international law.

Taipei rejected the ruling, saying Taiwan had never been invited to take part in the arbitration, it had long controlled Taiping and it regarded it as an island.

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