The ruling is binding for Beijing and Manila, but it also set a legal precedent by determining that UNCLOS rules take precedence over China’s historic claims.
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A five-judge tribunal dismissed China’s “Nine-dash line” – a 69-year-old claim to roughly 85 percent of the South China Sea – saying it was unlawful under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNLCLOS).
Pro-Beijing protesters shout slogans against the United States supporting an worldwide court ruling of the South China Sea outside the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, Thursday, July 14, 2016.
China’s stand weakens the principle of dispute resolution through arbitration-but this time, it is far more risky, as this is not just a dispute between the two nations, but also a proxy for China-US jousting.
The United States has launched a round of quiet diplomacy to persuade countries around the region not to move aggressively to capitalize on the ruling, several US administration officials said on Wednesday.
The US, on the other hand, can respond to China’s belligerence with trade sanctions and even egg on the Philippines to take the matter to the International Court of Justice.
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Unlike the former president, Mr Duterte has said he wants to talk directly with China over the issue.
But China appears to be in the minority – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also said Thursday as he left for Mongolia that he wanted to discuss the South China Sea at the summit.China claims almost all of the sea – which is of huge military importance and through which about $5 trillion worth of shipping trade passes annually – even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.
He has been more reconciliatory with China compared to his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who filed the arbitration complaint against Beijing. The Philippines sought arbitration in 2013 after witnessing China’s activities in Scarborough and elsewhere in the sea rich with fish and potential energy resources.
Vietnam Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh demanded Beijing cease actions that complicate the situation.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said China had “the right” to declare an air defence identification zone over the sea if it felt threatened, which would give the military authority over foreign aircraft and would likely further raise tensions in the region.
China has called Philippine claims of sovereignty “baseless” and has said that Chinese fishing boats have been harassed and attacked by the Philippines around the Spratly islands.
It also declared that China had acted unlawfully by violating the Philippines’ sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone – waters extending 200 nautical miles from the Filipino coast.
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The Philippines’ unilateral initiation of arbitration on the South China Sea dispute risks undermining the peace and stability of ASEAN, a Chinese expert has said.
