Del Rosario told the five-member Permanent Court of Arbitration that China’s actions have become more aggressive but calculated, apparently to minimize or avoid global attention.
The tribunal seeks to determine if it has jurisdiction over the case filed by Manila contesting Beijing’s nine-dash-line territorial claim over nearly the entire South China Sea. The hearing is being held after China questioned the court’s jurisdiction over the dispute.
“Outside observers have referred to this as China’s ‘salami-slicing’ strategy: that is, taking little steps over time, none of which individually is enough to provoke a crisis,” Del Rosario told the tribunal.
“When these small steps are taken together, however, they reflect China’s efforts to slowly consolidate de facto control throughout the South China Sea,” he said.
Chinese military officials themselves have referred to their country’s gradual seizure of territories as a “cabbage” strategy, in which they likened areas targeted for seizure to cabbage slowly being wrapped, leaf by leaf.
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