As maritime tensions between the Philippines and China rise, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is calling for a binding code of conduct in the South China Sea. To find out more about what that would mean, TaiwanPlus spoke to Renato Cruz de Castro, a distinguished professor at De La Salle University.
00:00President Marcos Jr. says a South China Sea code of conduct could help prevent escalation in the
00:06region. Could you walk us through why this code of conduct matters? The code of conduct does not
00:12intend to address the root cause of the dispute in the South China Sea, which is of course as
00:20shown by the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling on the South China Sea, it is Chinese maritime
00:29expansion. The code of conduct is silent about this matter. The code of conduct simply aims to
00:36manage the dispute by fostering a regime of confidence building so that the claimant states
00:43would develop trust with each other and will of course would not consider the use of force.
00:49How do you expect ASEAN members to line up on a binding code of conduct and where do you see
00:55common grounds and sticking points? So even within the four claimant states, there is a division in
01:03terms of what would be the geographic scope of the code of conduct. Then again, another bone of
01:09contention among the ASEAN member states, some ASEAN member states would simply see the code of conduct
01:15as a sort of a simple political document that would manage a dispute. Of course, in the case of the
01:22Philippines and to a certain degree Vietnam, both the Philippines and Vietnam are of course advancing
01:29the position that a code of conduct should be based on international law. Specifically, of course, the
01:35United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea and even the July 12, 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling. So even
01:43among the ASEAN member states, there are of course issues regarding what would be the nature of the code of conduct.
01:50How effective do you think the Philippines has been in countering Chinese grey zone tactics in the region?
01:57China, of course, has basically all the aces in its sleeves. It has, of course, the largest navy in the world. It has, of course, the largest coast guard in the world. It has basically militarized the features, the land features in the South China Sea.
02:12China Sea. So it's not simply a matter of, you know, Philippines being effective. What President
02:18Marcos said, whether despite the fact that all the odds are against us, we simply have no choice but to stand on
02:24our ground. Because if we are simply overwhelmed by China, how will other countries look at how we have
02:31to deal with Chinese coercive action and Chinese expansion, not only the South China Sea, but also against Taiwan.
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