In a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc Thursday, Li said the South China Sea issue should be solved through bilateral negotiations between relevant parties in line with historical facts, global law and the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
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But at the same he said China consistently opposed “so-called military freedom of navigation” referring a number of USA military vessels passing through waters close to artificial islands built by China in the South China Sea.
The decision also questioned the legality of China’s claim of – and construction on – several reefs also claimed by the Philippines, which brought the case.
“To effectively fulfill its mission, the air force will continue to conduct combat patrols on a regular basis in the South China Sea”.
China’s Defense Ministry echoed in a statement, “No matter what kind of ruling is to be made, Chinese armed forces will firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security, and maritime interests and rights, firmly uphold regional peace and stability, and deal with all kinds of threats and challenges”. Half of the 10 ASEAN countries have some sort of South China Sea dispute with Beijing, but China’s ally Cambodia said it does not want the bloc to mention the ruling.
China had boycotted the court proceedings, saying the court had no jurisdiction to rule on the issues, and has mounted a huge diplomatic and publicity drive to try to discredit the tribunal and its decision.
While the tribunal ruled that some land features were not islands but rocks or reefs, which would not permit China to claim territorial waters around them according to UNCLOS, Beijing rejected the ruling by stating that it was not obligated to defer to UNCLOS on issues of sovereignty.
Japan is not one of the parties to the South China Sea territorial disputes with China but the recent ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has taken its toll on the world stage.
For years, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei have claimed territories in the South China Sea.
A defiant China, which boycotted the whole arbitration proceedings, has dismissed the final ruling “null and void” and a worthless piece of paper without any effect.
By rejecting China’s claim of overlapping maritime interests, Jakarta is saying that Indonesia and China are not standing on equal footing on the Natuna waters.
“I think it’s too early for me to predict, but I think we do need to worry about that”, Julia Xue, International Law Program Academy senior fellow at Chatham House. But in recent months the USA has conducted a series of high-profile freedom of navigation operations in the disputed waters, near the artificial islands China has created there.
“Similarly, the arbitrary tribunal does not have the right to resolve this dispute”, he said.
Vietnam’s communist government is sensitive about anti-China sentiment among its people, many of whom welcomed the Philippines’ legal victory. The Arbitral Tribunal, however, rejected nearly all of China’s arguments.
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The Chinese government has also strongly warned other countries against the danger of the South China Sea, “a war cradle”.
