28 January 2016•Update: 28 January 2016
BEIJING
Taiwan's president visited Thursday an island in the disputed South China Sea, in a move that has drawn criticism from the Philippines and United States.
While Taiwan and China claim most of the Sea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have also laid claims.
Taiwan's official Central News Agency (CNA) reported Thursday that Ma Ying-jeou was accompanied by around 20 government officials, scholars and experts on his trip to Taiping Island, also known as Itu Aba.
Ma had departed the capital early in the morning to head for southern Pingtung county, before boarding a air force aircraft for the 1,600-kilometer trip to Taiping for the first presidential visit to the island since 2008.
After arriving at the island, Ma gave a speech in which he proposed a roadmap in line with the South China Sea peace initiative he announced in May, focused on reducing tension, increasing dialogue and upholding the freedom of navigation and flight.
The CNA cited a statement containing the speech released by the Presidential Office as saying that short- and long-term steps including trust building, codes of conduct on unexpected encounters, setting up hotlines and other security mechanisms, and measures to conserve and manage resources.
The long-term initiative would be to set up a mechanism for "zonal development" under which concerned parties delegated particular maritime regions for “bilateral or multilateral development”.
Ma’s visit was criticized by the Philippines, whose foreign affairs department released a statement “remind[ing] all parties concerned of our shared responsibility to refrain from actions that can increase tension.”
On Wednesday, the Taiwanese Presidential Office’s announcement of the trip had led to the United States mission in Taipei expressing its disappointment at the "extremely unhelpful" visit.
While a key ally of Taiwan, the U.S. does not support the territory’s independence from mainland China.
In 2014, China began a massive reclamation project in the Sea, adding around 3,000 acres of artificial land and turning what were mere rocks barely above water at low tide into artificial islands large enough to host runways long enough to accommodate high-performance jet aircraft and naval docking.
The Philippines refers to the South China Sea as the "West Philippine Sea", emphasizing that parts of the water fall under its exclusive economic zone as allowed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In August, it formally presented a case against China before an international tribunal at The Hague, arguing that Beijing has no right to exercise what it refers to as "historic rights" over areas of the sea.
On Wednesday, Taiwanese Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen had described Taiping as an inherent part of the territory of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
* Anadolu Agency correspondent Roy Ramos contributed to this report from the Philippines
