Book Highlight Document

Customizable Text

• Georgia, serif
• EXHIBIT A - ARBITRATION TRIBUNAL
• • Consequently, the Arbitral Tribunal manifestly has no jurisdiction over the present arbitration. Based on the foregoing and the freedom of every State to choose the means of dispute settlement, China's rejection of and non-participation in the arbitration is on solid ground in international law.
• II. The essence of the subject-matter of the arbitration is the territorial sovereignty over several maritime features in the South China Sea, which does not concern the interpretation or application of the Convention
• 4. China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands (the Dongsha Islands, the Xisha Islands, the Zhongsha Islands, the Nansha Islands) and the adjacent waters. Chinese activities inthe South China Sea date back to
• over 2,000 years ago
• and China was the first country to
• discover, name, explore and
• exploit the resources of the South China Sea Islands and the first to continuously exercise sovereign powers over them. From the 1930s to 1940s, Japan illegally seized some parts of the South China Sea Islands during its war of aggression against China. At the end of the Second World War, the Chinese Government resumed exercise of sovereignty over the Islands. Military personnel and government officials were sent via naval vessels to hold resumption of authority ceremonies, commemorative stone markers were erected, garrisons stationed, and geographical surveys conducted. In 1947, China renamed the archipelagos in the South China Sea Islands and, in 1948, published an official map which displayed a dotted line in the South China Sea.