Tommy Koh wants China to go ICJ to settle territorial disputes

Tommy wants China to place itself under the jurisdiction of modern day international laws when China’s claim to the South China Sea Islands was based on historical precedents during a time when it was finder’s keepers. China is claiming these islands that were uninhabited and they were the first to arrive on the islands to claim it.

Compares this to the Americans’ claim to North America and the Australian’s claims to Australia, the British’s claims to New Zealand, and other colonised countries, would the Americans, Australians, British New Zealanders be willing to go under the jurisdiction of the international courts if the native Red Indians, the aborigines and the Maoris make a claim to their land? Would the Americans go to courts with the Pacific Islanders wanting to reclaim their islands in the Pacific Ocean?

In the case of China and the South China Sea islands, once China agrees to go to the ICJ, it will open the Pandora box to every littoral states of the South China Seas to make their claims. And if the ICJ once decided that the new international laws supercede historical claims, China would stand to lose practically every island it claimed and under its sovereignty.

Why would China want to go to court and risk losing anything to anyone that can just make a claim to the ICJ when it is already exercising sovereignty over these islands? Are the Chinese leaders idiots?

There is a big difference in the thinking of the Chinese leaders versus the Singaporean mindset. The Chinese leaders would not give up their territories to anyone. They had lost a lot of land during the era of colonialism and conquest by the western powers and Japan. Today they are able to defend their territories and they will not yield an inch without a fight. The Singaporeans would give their country away willingly on the ground of ‘meritocrazy’, the fittest shall inherit their country, regardless of nationality. It is going and soon will be gone.