Eri🇵🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦🇷🇺🇺🇸🇨🇳✝️✡️☪️🕉️

Make no mistake: The Philippines’ territorial boundaries were clearly and definitively set by three international treaties. The Philippines itself had no doubt about these limits for decades -- they were enshrined in its own Constitution and laws. The three treaties: • Treaty of Paris (1898) — US-Spain: Ceded the Philippine archipelago within specific geographic lines (latitude/longitude). • Treaty of Washington (1900) — Clarified additional islands outside the 1898 lines (e.g. Cagayan Sulu & Sibutu). • US-UK Convention (1930) — Settled the boundary with North Borneo; transferred Turtle Islands & Mangsee Islands to the Philippines. These exact treaties are explicitly referenced in the 1935, 1973, and 1987 Philippine Constitutions as comprising the national territory. -------- @jaytaryela @GordianKnotRay @CollinSLKoh @MT_Anderson @AndrewSErickson @graham_euan @JeffreyOrdaniel @AaronMatthew_L @teddyboylocsin @AusAmbPH @kikopangilinan @BRPSierraMadre @ChinaMilBugle @PMCroninHudson @PeterCronau @wps_ph @jpsoriano @bill_hayton @dndphl @Chinaembmanila @PHLAmbUSA @DerekJGrossman @TristanNodalo @ChineseEmbinUS @EUAmbPH

🚨BREAKING -- 🇨🇳Chinese scholars have "concluded" that the 🇵🇭#Philippines' northernmost Batanes Islands legally belong to #China, by way of 🇹🇼#Taiwan. At a June 30th symposium in Guangzhou hosted by Jinan University, roughly a dozen researchers from prominent Chinese universities and institutes declared that Manila's control over Batanes lacks historical and legal basis, and in fact the islands belong to China. "Participants unanimously concluded that the Batan Islands constitute a natural geographical extension of Taiwan, with sovereignty belonging to China, and that so-called Japan-Philippines maritime delimitation negotiations in the area hold no legal validity. The symposium was convened in direct response to the joint statement issued at the recent Japan-Philippines summit." [Link in the comments below] In other words, Beijing -- via its academics and aided by state media -- clearly orchestrated this symposium to propose a new territorial baseline, a "lawfare" tactic to back up the patrols it launched far to the east of Taiwan last month. So far PRC government officials have not endorsed the symposium's conclusions, but that's not unusual in PRC gray-zone narrative warfare. For now, muddying the waters over Batanes' legal ownership is sufficient to help justify its "sovereignty" patrols. Full SeaLight analysis coming soon.

🚨BREAKING -- 🇨🇳Chinese scholars have "concluded" that the 🇵🇭#Philippines' northernmost Batanes Islands legally belong to #China, by way of 🇹🇼#Taiwan. At a June 30th symposium in Guangzhou hosted by Jinan University, roughly a dozen researchers from prominent Chinese universities and institutes declared that Manila's control over Batanes lacks historical and legal basis, and in fact the islands belong to China. "Participants unanimously concluded that the Batan Islands constitute a natural geographical extension of Taiwan, with sovereignty belonging to China, and that so-called Japan-Philippines maritime delimitation negotiations in the area hold no legal validity. The symposium was convened in direct response to the joint statement issued at the recent Japan-Philippines summit." [Link in the comments below] In other words, Beijing -- via its academics and aided by state media -- clearly orchestrated this symposium to propose a new territorial baseline, a "lawfare" tactic to back up the patrols it launched far to the east of Taiwan last month. So far PRC government officials have not endorsed the symposium's conclusions, but that's not unusual in PRC gray-zone narrative warfare. For now, muddying the waters over Batanes' legal ownership is sufficient to help justify its "sovereignty" patrols. Full SeaLight analysis coming soon.

CHINA CLAIMS THE BATANES ISLANDS @GordianKnotRay of @SeaLightFound EXPOSES China's recent "pretext to escalation" by publically staking CLAIM to the Batanes Islands in the northernest tip of the Philippines as part of their territory, with the communists of Beijing convening a bunch of fake scholars to justify why they own islands that for centuries was long regarded as part of the Philippines. He was speaking just a short time ago at the National West Philippine Sea Summit in Manila. This is disgusting provocation by Beijing. Filipinos must condemn this and talk about it more with righteous fury. @wps_ph