China routinely carries out exercises in the South China Sea, where its territorial claims overlap in parts with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
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Kerry also demanded that China abide by a ruling that a U.N.-backed arbitral tribunal will hand down on July 12 regarding the legitimacy of Beijing’s claims to nearly the whole South China Sea, according to the sources.
Xi’s remarks come ahead of a July 12 ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in a case between China and Philippines.
Meanwhile, China’s Maritime Safety Administration announced that drills will take place between July 5 to July 11. “Beijing may wager that naval drills are a sufficiently muscular way to register its opposition to the court, without requiring more assertive measures like building on Scarborough Shoal or setting up an air-defence identification zone in the South China Sea”, he added.
The tribunal failed to see that the Philippines’ self-defeating claims were in fact over sovereignty, Michael Sheng-ti Gau, a professor of global law from China’s Taiwan, said Sunday at a seminar in The Hague.
In his statement Hong said the Philippines unilaterally initiated the arbitration in 2013.
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte wanted a “conversation” with China on the South China Sea in a bid to work out a “win-win relationship” with the country, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said on Friday.
In Manila, the foreign ministry said the Philippines would “fully respect” the tribunal’s ruling and hoped members of the worldwide community would do the same. The remarks appeared to be targeted at the USA and Philippines over freedom of navigation patrols and competing claims in the waters.
The arbitral tribunal established at the request of the Philippines has no jurisdiction over the case, and the upcoming ruling will result from abuse of the law and is therefore invalid, the spokesperson said.
Bateman said that the South China Sea disputes will have to be resolved through negotiations among the countries directly involved.
China asserts sovereignty over nearly all of the resource-rich strategic waterway despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours – raising tensions with the United States, which has key defence treaties with many allies in the region.
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Although the outgoing Philippine government said it had exhausted all diplomatic approaches before seeking arbitration, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Manila did not embark on any serious two-way negotiations over the claims it had raised with the tribunal.
