It added China’s decision not to participate in the proceedings did not deprive the tribunal of jurisdiction and that the Philippine submission of its petition to commence arbitration unilaterally did not constitute an abuse of its dispute settlement procedures.
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Tensions between the USA and China ran high this week in the South China Sea after a US naval “incursion” into waters claimed by China.
The Tribunal decision said it has immediate jurisdiction on seven out of 15 points raised by the Philippines against China – called “submissions” in legal parlance – but postponed for “later consideration” its jurisdiction ruling on eight other issues raised by Manila, saying it will be decided on as it conducts a formal hearing on the merits of the case.
“The attempts to attain more illegal interests by initiating arbitration unilaterally is impractical and will lead nowhere”, said Zhu Haiquan, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
The operations chiefs of the Chinese and USA navies held an hour-long tele-video conference on Thursday, during which Chinese Admiral Wu Shengli warned a minor incident could spark a war in the South China Sea.
“The Tribunal also recalled the steps it had taken to ensure that the Philippines was not disadvantaged by China’s non-participation”.
If it wants to uphold the worldwide law it says is essential for maintaining peace, China should agree to talks to settle these claims by compromise as it has done on several of its land borders.
The Foreign Ministry statement yesterday said the Philippines’ actions amounted to “political provocation under the cloak of law”.
Bonnie Glaser, a South China Sea expert at the Center for Strategic and worldwide Studies in Washington, called the outcome “a major blow for China given that the opinion explicitly rejects China’s arguments that … the Philippines has not done enough to negotiate the issues with China”. United States imperialism has been the primary coercive force and the leading source of the military escalation of disputes, not only in the South China Sea, but around the globe.
They also said that planned visits by members of each navy to China and the United States were still going to take place as planned.
China’s Foreign Ministry said on its website Wednesday that Executive Vice Minister Zhang Yesui told Max Baucus that the USA had acted in defiance of repeated Chinese objections and had threatened China’s sovereignty and security.
China has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.
“The ruling or the result of arbitration will not affect China’s position”.
The Philippines, on the other hand, argued that its case is not about sovereignty, but a plea to have an worldwide court declare China’s nine-dash line as inconsistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), which outlines a system of territory and economic zones that can be claimed from features such as shoals, islets and reefs.
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Top US diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Russel, said that when the tribunal issues its final decision, there would be an worldwide expectation that China would not flout its obligations under the convention.
