Opinion

Why did US diplomat say Scarborough Shoal belonged to the Philippines?

Amid South China Sea tensions, Nicholas Burns’ incorrect assertion that the disputed Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal were Philippine territory may reflect US bias at work

This highlights a hardening US stance against China and Beijing’s communication challenges

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Nicholas Burns, US ambassador to China, speaks at the Brookings Institution in Washington about US-China relations, in December. Photo: AP

Dr Zheng Zhihua is an associate professor and head of the East Asia Marine Policy Project at the Centre for Japanese Studies, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Published: 5:30am, 30 Mar 2024Updated: 11:32am, 31 Mar 2024

Corrected [11:24am, 31 Mar, 2024]

[11:24am, 31 Mar, 2024]
An earlier version of the article stated that the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled on the 2016 South China Sea case. But, more accurately, it was an ad hoc tribunal established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that made the ruling. The Permanent Court of Arbitration served as the Registry in this arbitration. This article has been updated to reflect this.

Earlier this month, US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discussed US-China relations at a seminar hosted by the East-West Centre in Hawaii. Startlingly, he claimed that Second Thomas Shoal and Scarborough Shoal were “the sovereign territory of the Philippines”.

His baffling remark was in response to questions by East-West Centre president Suzanne Vares-Lum on South China Sea tensions between China and the Philippines. Burns said the US was “very concerned” about China’s “coercive pressure”, and referred to the “tense stand-offs” at “Second Thomas Shoal and also in Scarborough Shoal”.

He added: “The International Court of Justice, which is the relevant legal body, ruled in July 2016 decisively in favour of the Philippines. And so that that territory is the sovereign territory of the Philippines and that China’s legal claim to it has no basis in international law. All the rest of the world understands that and recognises that this is sovereign Filipino territory.”

This is not only counterfactual but also diverges from the official US position, and misrepresents the relevant international laws, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).