Hague Court Agrees to Hear South China Sea Dispute

Admiral Wu Shengli made the comments to USA chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson during a video teleconference on Thursday, according to a Chinese naval statement.

Earlier this week, the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of at least one of the land formations claimed by China in the disputed Spratly Islands chain early Tuesday.

It is absurd for Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to oppose the USA naval action by saying, “We urge the USA side to think twice, not to take rash moves and stir up trouble”.

Tuesday’s incident was a foreseeable one: The USA rebalance in East Asia and the growing maritime power of China were bound to become a point of conflict at a few point. The Chinese response – limited so far only to rhetoric – suggests Beijing may tacitly acknowledges the freedom of navigation in the area, but does “not want the U.S.to make a regular practice of it”, said Phillip Saunders, director of the U.S. National Defense University’s Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs.

USA officials say that Washington takes the position on freedom of navigation, as it has direct interest in the region.

Six governments have overlapping claims across the vast South China Sea, with China claiming it has sovereignty over virtually all of it. China has vowed not to take part in worldwide arbitration. Though Mr. Harris has been highly grave of China’s island building in the Spratlys since he believes that China is using bulldozers and dredges to create a “great wall of sand” in the South China sea. The Chinese have claimed the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as their territory which they call ‘Southern Tibet’.

The issue has always been strain on relations in the region, with China’s claim to most of the South China Seas objected to by the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia, Brunei. Notably, the Court has rejected an argument in China’s position paper that the “2002 China-ASEAN Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea constitutes an agreement to resolve disputes relating to the South China Sea exclusively through negotiation”.

China suffered a setback on Thursday in its broad territorial claims in the South China Sea when an arbitration court in The Hague said it had jurisdiction to hear a few territorial claims the Philippines filed against China.

With the aforementioned conditions in mind, “Manila said that a portion of the maritime territory being claimed by China sits within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ)”.

Many Asian experts argue that China’s assertive behavior in the South China Sea, especially toward the Philippines and Vietnam, has pushed most of the regional nations towards the American security camp.

China’s state media mocked President Obama over the USA warship maneuvers in the South China Sea, as the country’s netizens called for outright military action. The tribunal said it has authority to look into seven of the issues raised by the Philippines but its jurisdiction over seven others “will need to be considered in conjunction with the merits”.

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The tribunal, in its 147-page decision, also debunked China’s argument that Manila’s case is beyond the scope of the court’s mandate.