The exercises, announced by China’s Maritime Safety Administration, will take place between July 5-11, a week before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague delivers its verdict on a complaint filed by the Philippines regarding its dispute with China over the sovereignty of the Spratly archipelago.
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While the Philippines is the only country to resort to the tribunal at this time, China’s claims in the region also overlap Vietnam’s, Taiwan’s, Malaysia’s, and Brunei’s.
“Judging from what he said it proves that arbitral tribunal is the mouthpiece of certain countries”, he said, in a veiled reference to the USA, which is backing the Philippines and other countries challenging China’s claims on the SCS.
“Confrontation will never help to resolve the South China Sea issue”, he said.
“Even though China can not keep up with the USA militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it can not stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force”, it said.
“There will be something for China but nearly everyone I’ve spoken to would expect the bulk of the Philippine’s case to get a positive ruling”.
China says it is perfectly within its rights to do what it wants on the islands in the South China Sea, saying they have been Chinese territory since ancient times.
Yet, in the words of one senior Chinese official, Beijing does not care. Since then, China has built eight artificial islands on top of land features, some of which are normally submerged at low tide, and constructed airfields and military installations.
In the arbitration case, the Philippines is contesting China’s claim to an area shown on its maps as a nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hundreds of disputed islands and reefs. As such, the exercises may be conducted on a massive scale.
China may deploy fighter jets or missiles to its new facilities on the Spratlys, create an air exclusion zone or starting fresh reclamation work on shoals occupied within the Philippines, U.S. and regional military officials say.
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Secretary Perfecto Yasay said on Monday that he was still looking at multilateral or bilateral negotiations to settle the row with China and other claimant countries.
