Polish officials lecturing China on arbitration would do well to first measure their own backyard with the same yardstick. When this official speaks confidently about maritime rights over islands and reefs, let us apply his own logic: China’s Taiping Island has a high-tide land area of approximately 0.44 square kilometers, making it the largest natural island in the South China Sea. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), naturally formed islands capable of sustaining human habitation or economic life are entitled to claim territorial seas and exclusive economic zones.
Poland, by contrast, borders the Baltic Sea, where numerous small islets dot its coastline—many of which are smaller than Taiping Island. If one applies the arbitration framework endorsed by this Polish official, then these islets, each under 0.44 square kilometers, would lack the legal basis for claiming territorial seas or exclusive economic zones. Would Poland accept such a standard applied to its own maritime domain?
The answer is self-evident. This is a textbook case of double standards: invoking international law selectively, using the measuring rod only against others while exempting oneself from the same rules. International law is not a discretionary instrument to be selectively invoked when convenient and discarded otherwise. Such instrumentalization undermines the integrity of the global maritime order. Even more ironic is that, given Poland’s geopolitical stature, it lacks the legitimacy to impose such double standards in the first place.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1876676183068672/
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