[GA] Resolution for Action against China's violation of International Law

[Jace]

"My reply, Minister, would be that the Kingdom of Singapore supports the GA in passing resolutions which pertain to humanitarian efforts, economic prosperity, and global security of trade lanes. What Singapore does not support is the usage of a larger governing body as a means of forcing acts of aggression upon peaceful nations due to decades-long feuds which accomplish nothing productive in the process. If the tables were turned and the Celestial Empire were doing the same to your nation, our position would stand firm, and our support would be with you. Unfortunately that is not the case today. I wouldn't call this meeting productive, either. It is in essence a well-scripted production for which the Phillipine government and it's allies in Southeast Asia to acquire the necessary casus belli to achieve your goals, assuming the Celestial Empire does not comply.

I do not recall the Philippine government, nor the Vietnamese government for that matter, reaching out to the Celestial Empire in an effort to discuss the shared opinion the three nations in question hold over the islands? A summit between you three would be a productive and mature move on all sides-- and that is a position we in Singapore hold as a second party in this fiasco.

But I don't see that happening at the moment. The first step made was to the Global Assembly, rather than directly to the nation in question. That is not mature. That is tactical, well-thought out and a shrewd choice of maneuvering on behalf of the parties you represent. It sets a dangerous precedent for the future of Asia, and we do not wish to see another domino effect in Asia coming from a forced decision made without true dialogue between all parties.

Granted, my words aside, the Kingdom of Singapore holds no ill-will towards any parties involved in this dispute. We wish to see nothing but prosperity in Asia; an aim we share with both the Celestial Empire and Bharata Khanda. Singapore First, when it comes to our nation, but Asia First when it pertains to our region of the world. This meeting is counter-productive to that line of thinking, plain and simple, and that's where we reach an impasse, Minister."

@Apingdaldal

 

[Dutchy]

"Madam," the Ambassador directing his words towards the Singaporean Ambassador, "The International Court of Justice is an arm of this respected body tasked with ensuring that the resolutions, debated, voted and agreed upon by the members of the assembly, are upheld. The court is also held up by judges from a multitude of nations, with their allegiance to the Global Assembly, the world and the rule of law. To be labeling them as biased sets a dangerous precedent for nations to ignore its rulings with the reasoning of bias."

 

[Naio90]

An argentine representative would arrive and begin reading the transcripts.

 

[Apingdaldal]

Teodoro Locsin Jr would respond to the Singaporean ambassador:

"Madame Wei, I respect your opinion. But opinions hold no weight compared to facts. Shall we go to the facts then?"

Teodoro Locsin Jr. would plug his laptop to a speaker inside the conference hall. He will play Exhibit # 2 which is a recorded radio conversation between the Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Cape San Agustin and the Chinese Naval ship Type 055 guided missile destroyer Tianjin

EXHIBIT # 2 playing: ​

excerpts from here: https://modernnations.com/threads/oplan-kabutihan.2563/​

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BRP Cape San Agustin: “Chinese Navy Destroyers. This is the Philippine Coast Guard ship, BRP Cape San Agustin on Channel 16. Switch to Channel 9 and acknowledge. Over!”

Type 055D Tianjin: "BRP Cape San Agustin, this is the Tianjin. Acknowledged. Over"

BRP Cape San Agustin: “Chinese destroyer Tianjin. Please state the size of the group / fleet you are with in this area. And also, please declare your purpose / intention on why you are patrolling this area. Over.”

Type 055D Tianjin: "BRP San Agustin, the exact composition of our force is classified. We are operating under the umbrella of the Coast Guard to protect shipping and prevent piracy in Celestial territorial waters and the EEZ due to a current lack of assets capable of blue water operations within the branch. Over."

BRP Cape San Agustin: “Chinese destroyer Tianjin. You and Chinese destroyer Xi'an are blatantly violating Chapter 4 of the Global Assembly's Resolution on the Law of the Seas. The incapability of your Chinese Coast Guard is not a excuse for violating GA Resolutions. And may I remind you that by not fully declaring the exact composition of your force who are currently violating the Global Assembly Resolution, you are making your offense even worst. So I repeat, state the size of the group / fleet you are with in this area. Over."

Type 055D Tianjin: "BRP San Agustin, as the Tianjin and Xi'an operate under the umbrella of the Coast Guard there is no violation of the Law of the Seas. The resolution in spirit and writing only prohibits military vessels, if this were to cover all vessels with weapons your very own vessel would be in violation. There is also no obligation under international law to declare the composition in our territorial waters or international waters."

BRP Cape San Agustin: “Chinese destroyer Tianjin. The Philippine Coast Guard is a registered law enforcement organization, not a military organization. Philippine coast Guard ships are also registered as coast guard vessels. Your ship on the other hand are PLAAN ships hence are military vessels. As for your argument on "armed vessel", that is applicable for civilian ships registered as commercial/merchant vessels. Besides, all Coast Guard ships around the world are obviously armed since they are law enforcers. Not with missiles though like a Type 055 destroyer of the Chinese Navy. I also want to remind you that an Exclusive Economic zone only extends 200 nautical miles from a country's territorial baseline as per GA Resolution of Law of the Sea. The Spratly Island group is obvious way more than 200-nm from China. So I repeat for the last time, state the size of the group / fleet you are with in this area. Over."

Type 055D Tianjin: "BRP San Agustin, you will have to point out the international treaty provision that stipulates a vessel nominally under the Navy is not allowed to act under the umbrella of the Coast Guard. Neither the Law of the Sea or any other resolution we are aware of prohibits this. In fact the convention only says a military vessel cannot operate within disputed waters. As our mission is one of policing that counts as a police vessel. In fact the convention does not define what a military vessel is at all. We will not declare our composition."

BRP Cape San Agustin: “Very well. You have the right to remain silent. (***white noise***). Chinese destroyer Tianjin. A PLAAN Navy ship does not make him a non-PLAAN Navy ship even under an "umbrella" of a non-military organization. Same goes with as a non-military ship operating under the "umbrella" of a Navy also does not make it a Naval ship. And if you are not clear of the definition of a military vessel - well a military vessel is simply a Naval vessel painted in haze gray. And by the way, we can clear see the pennant number of your ship. Definitely that's a PLAAN Navy ship. Oh, and one more thing, we don't remember Coast Guard ships armed to the teeth except the former USCG Hamilton cutter Mellon during the Cold War era.

I also want to remind you that an Exclusive Economic zone only extends 200 nautical mile from a country's territorial baseline as per GA Resolution of Law of the Sea. The Spratly Island group is obvious way more than 200-nm from China. We would like to you to leave the Spratly Islands and steer back inside your 200-nm EEZ immediately because clearly your ships are not in this area for "innocent right of passage" but rather you're doing a military patrol disguised as a Chinese Coast guard mission. I repeat, leave the area immediately. Over."

<no response from Tianjin>

BRP Cape San Agustin: “Chinese destroyer Tianjin. You are violating Chapter 4 of the GA Resolution for the Law of the Sea. Leave the Spratly areas immediately! Failure to comply with the GA Resolution will be treated as military aggression by China. I repeat. Leave the Spratly areas immediately! Over."

<no response from Tianjin>

- end of audio recording -

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Teodoro Locsin Jr would then continue speaking to all ambassadors:

"Now as you have clearly heard from the audio recording, the Philippines exercised full restrain and have peacefully talked with the Chinese. Please take note what the Chinese Navy ship strong response: they consider the Spratly areas as their "Celestial Territorial Waters and EEZ". Even the nitpick on the definition of a military vessel. Now tell me honestly, would a one-of-one talk will resolve this issue, given that the Chinese insists that the disputed zone is it's "Celestial territory or EEZ" and even pointed out that the GA Resolution of the Laws of the Sea has flawed definitions?"

That is why the Philippines has brought this issue up with the Global Assembly.

And by the way, I appreciate the honorable Dutch ambassador Stefanus van der Laar for re-affirm to our honorable Singaporean ambassador Jacqueline Wei that the International Court of Justice is a impartial, fair court.

I would further appreciate the Dutch ambassador for his recommendation that this should be brought up to the International Court of Justices. To be honest, I am 100% in favor of it. Because at least once we (Philippines and China) are in the ICJ, all will be speaking UNDER OATH.

 

[Logan]

The Italian Delegate to the GA would arrive to attend the meeting, and read over the transcripts thus far.

 

[Centurius]

"The reality of this situation is that the International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction in this matter. There is no law in existence that governs what is and what is not a military vessel. The Captain of the Tianjin has exercised significant restraint in addressing the commander of a foreign frigate on the reasons for the fleet's presence in the region. By now even letting it cross into its security perimeter and threatening to use violence with all efforts by the Captain of the Tianjin focused on de-escalation. As the recordings by the honourable representative from the Philippines show. Even if the ICJ were to have jurisdiction to rule on this matter, the Celestial Empire believes that any court that has a member hostile to the Celestial Empire is incapable of due process. As such even in that case we can only accept a ruling where Vietnam has no influence on.

Now this body has had to hear to different definition of what constitutes a warship, the honourable delegate from the Philippines like to refer a lot to accepted standards. Now let's look at some of those standards. First of all I present article 29 of the defunct UNCLOS.

'For the purposes of this Convention, "warship" means a ship belonging to the armed forces of a State bearing the external marks distinguishing such ships of its nationality, under the command of an officer duly commissioned by the government of the State and whose name appears in the appropriate
service list or its equivalent, and manned by a crew which is under regular armed forces discipline.'

Now I am sure the delegate from the Philippines is going to argue that this shows that the Tianjin and Xi'an are in violation. Which under that definition admittedly is something that it does. Is however the BRP Cape San Agustin not also a ship bearing external marks distinguishing it from its nationality? is it not commanded by an officer duly commissioned by its government? Does its name not appear in the service list? Does the use of such ranks as Chief Petty Officer and the use of uniforms not show the vessel is manned by a crew under regular armed forces discipline?

Of course I can already see the honourable delegate from the Philippines saying that because it is a Coast Guard it does not count, if however we look at the accepted standards there. Does 14 U.S. Code § 1 not say that 'The Coast Guard, established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times.'

So really, we can go by the old UNCLOS here which means none of the parties in the disputed South China Sea are allowed to have any vessels of a military nature in the region, resulting in a haven for piracy or lawlessness or even worse a foreign military presence or we can develop a definition that actually allows the spirit of the CLOS to be exercised while establishing a system that allows for security in one of the busiest sea routes in the world.

The simple fact is that the Philippines is wasting all our time here for the Celestial Empire doing the same thing they are. We just didn't bother to paint our ship white first. I am sure we can arrange for a few paint buckets if that pleases the Philippines, in the meantime there are more important matters this respectable organization should probably focus on. Like the ongoing human rights violations in Bosnia and Turkey."

Liu Jieyi concluded the Celestial position.

 

[JJSmithJr]

Nigerian Ambassador to the Global Assembly, Peter Ochanga, would arrive at the General Assembly meeting, somewhat surprised to receive such a large transcript considering that many key members had not yet taken their seats. He would take Nigeria's table up himself, sprawling his papers, laptop, and tablet, all over. He was a somewhat askew figure, but he was extremely competent and experienced in governmental affairs. He would quickly read the transcript, carefully making notes. Nigeria would be essentially representing the entire continent of Africa, and Peter was very aware of that fact. He would be sure to make eye contact with both the Representative from the Philippines and the Representative from Argentina, Nigeria's closest foreign allies. He was surprised to see that the Portuguese were yet to arrive.

 

[Odinson]

The Norwegian representatives showed up and read the transcript of what had happened so far.

 

[Apingdaldal]

Teodoro Locsin Jr. would respond to the Chinese ambassador Liu Jieyi:

I'd like to clarify to everyone what the Philippine Coast Guard is. Referring to the same Article 29 of the defunct UNCLOS. It explicitly states:

Definition of warships: For the purposes of this Convention, "warship" means

a.) a ship belonging to the armed forces of a State

b.) bearing the external marks distinguishing such ships of its nationality,

c.) under the command of an officer duly commissioned by the government of the State and whose name appears in the appropriate service list or its equivalent,

d.) and manned by a crew which is under regular armed forces discipline.

Now.. while the Philippine Coast Guard do fit on "b" abd "C", the Philippine Coast Guard is not part of the Armed Forces of a State (in my case the Philippines) and the officer, while having a a ranking system identical with the Philippine Navy, are not under "regular armed forces discipline". Even our crew and officers of our Philippine Merchant Marines follow the same ranks identical to the Philippine Navy The Philippine Coast Guard is under the Department of Transportation, and not under the Department of National Defense and definitely a branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

With all this said, the term "warship" does not apply to the Philippine Coast Guard vessels.

How about the Chinese destroyer Tianjin and the Xi'an?

a.) a ship belonging to the armed forces of a State - YES

b.) bearing the external marks distinguishing such ships of its nationality, - YES

c.) under the command of an officer duly commissioned by the government of the State and whose name appears in the appropriate service list or its equivalent, - YES

d.) and manned by a crew which is under regular armed forces discipline. YES. The destroyers are manned by crews of the Chinese Navy

Now regarding your statement "painting your Naval ships white"..... Hmmm... well... yeah technically you can do that especially if you have a clear intention to deceive and take undue advantage. I have to commend China for having thought of that. Indeed, China is so "resourceful and innovative". Teodoro Locsin Jr. would not make any facial expression or any body language for that sarcastic remark. He will continue:

As for Pag-asa Island settlers where you are challenging our municipality there. We have come into an agreement with Vietnam ever since the 1980's.. .long before your Galactic... err I mean your Celestial Empire of 2012 was formed. Philippines and Vietnam are on diplomatic agreement since we are the only 2 claimant country who has actual conflict i.e. overlapping EEZ because, as I've stated earlier, Philippines and Vietnam are immediate neighbors in the Spratly Islands. Now if you want to debate on the legality of China's claim over the Spratly Islands, The Federal Republic of the Philippines is actually planning to call for a separate Resolution regarding the Spratly Island - the ultimate resolution that will finish this 5-nation dispute once and for all. And I am telling you now, that China will lose it's face big time once the Federal Republic of the Philippines calls for this resolution. But don't worry, for now, the meeting here is about China's recent violation of the GA Resolution. Your experts will have ample time to prepare for it's legal defense for it's "Celestial Claim" over the Spratly Islands, and ultimately the South China Sea.

Now going back to topic: the Philippines wouldn't be filing this case against China if their "Navy-warship-under-Coastguard" are in their EEZ, or in undisputed international waters, or even if they are in that contested zone as long they are just doing an innocent right of passage. But those are not the case against China. They are violating Chapter 4 of the GA Resolution because they are conducting a government-sanctioned operation on contested zone.


Anyway, I will have to agree with the Chinese ambassador for saying that time is wasted here. Yes, we are wasting time. So let's rectify this case to the International Court of Justices. Afterall, all the Chinese can do now is find loopholes in a desperate attempt to wiggle out from the mess they made."

 

[Centurius]

"It appears the honourable representative from the Philippines does not quite seem to understand what constitutes regular armed forces discipline. It does not mean the branch itself is part of a defence ministry. It means that the organization is ruled by a similar structure to the regular armed forces. Did you not just admit your organization is essentially the same? Do your Coast Guard personnel not wear uniforms? Do they not carry weapons? Are they not tasked with defending your borders and guarding maritime security? So you do indeed very much fall under the final three provisions. As far as the first one. The Philippines must truly be special as throughout the world essentially every agency with the same duties as your Coast Guard is considered an armed force. I have already cited you the relevant part of the United States laws, Bharata Khanda considers it as part of their armed forces. While the Celestial Empire holds it under the People's Armed Police which eventually ends up back under the armed forces of the Celestial Empire as well. You accuse the Celestial Empire of looking for loopholes yet it seems to be the Philippines that seek to deceive the world by claiming a Coast Guard with such far-reaching powers as not being an armed force.

As a point of order I will also state that your tone and the use of racial slurs in this honourable body strongly shows your true malevolent intent here and I must protest it as such. During the formation of the Celestial Empire it was stated that the Empire considers itself the successor state to the People's Republic of China and with it assumes all the international obligations of that state. Something clearly reflected in the fact we are still here despite never having needed to re-apply to the Global Assembly.

Now can you actually be an adult rather than reverting to childish accusations? We have made our position clear on why the Celestial Empire holds that there is no place for the International Court of Justice in this case."

 

[Jace]

Jaqueline picked up the assorted files and documents placed in front of her as the two delegates began their own back-and-forth dialogue. Once a lengthy enough pause between them was spotted, she would speak up once more.

"Our point has been made. I believe the GA should know our stance by now, and with that in mind, the Singaporean delegation is taking it's leave from these proceedings. If the Phillipines wishes to reach a conclusion to this issue outside of the GA, our King personally invites all parties involved to Singapore as a neutral ground for mediation and dialogue on the issue. Other than that, we have more pressing concerns to take care that take precedent over this...discussion. Singapore First, and God Bless."

The Singaporean royal would make her way out, a smirk hidden on her face as she exited the room to make her way back home to Singapore.

 

[Centurius]

Jieyi took note of the Singaporean departure from the meeting, in some ways he felt envious. "The Celestial Empire for one is willing to engage in multi-party talks without prior agreements restraining the parties. What we will not be party to is the corruption and abuse of a noble organization for individual gain"

 

[Hollie]

[THE SECRETARY GENERAL]: Mr. Gregory Figueroa
[DATE]: 26/09/2018

"The Objective of this Resolution is to determine whether the Celestial Empire (China) has violated International Law. Those specific to Laws of the Sea, a resolution that was Adopted by her Assembly in 2011. Not a place to settle your Personal Qualms with one another. This Matter is being referred to the International Court of Justice, effective immediately. While the Justices prepare the Court Case, any Evidence you wish to provide (For, or Against) the Celestial Empire may be neatly stored on my desk. This Meeting is hereby SUSPENDED"

 

[Apingdaldal]

Teodoro Locsin Jr. Would present Exhibit #1, #2, #3 as well as the transcript of this GA meeting as evidence against China. He would then leave then thank the Secretary General for rectifying the case to the ICJ.

He would also approach the Dutch, Vietnamese, British, Nigerian, Argentinian, Norwegian, German, and the Italian ambassadors; shook their hands and thanked them for attendance.

He would then pack his things and leave the room.