UNITED States President Barack Obama said Thursday that China could not ignore the global tribunal ruling that nullified its claims over expansive territories in the South China Sea as it threatens regional security.
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The verdict by an worldwide tribunal in The Hague said China’s claims to most of the waters – through which US$5 trillion (S$6.7 trillion) in global shipping trade passes annually – had no legal basis.
The statement also made no reference to the land reclamation activities by China, which has turned shoals and coral reefs into seven man-made islands and built airstrips capable of handling military aircraft on three of them.
China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts or all of the South China Sea, making it a hot spot of regional tension.
It also ruled that a massive burst of artificial island building by China to bolster its claims in the South China Sea was illegal.
The Chinese ships were at Scarborough Shoal, a small fishing ground within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone that China took control of in 2012.
According to the draft chairman’s statement, seen by Kyodo News, ASEAN leaders are expected to “welcome” China’s vision of completing “the implementation of the code of conduct’s early harvest measures by the end of 2016” and “consultation on the COC outline in the first half of 2017 under circumstances without disturbances and to fast track COC consultation”.
In a press conference, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Martin Andanar said the issue of the South China Sea was mentioned during the ASEAN-China Dialogue.
In reaction to Obama’s statements that the ruling is legally “binding,” Beijing said the U.S. is in no position to issue such a statement considering that it is not a party to the ongoing dispute.
“Both China and the United States are among the most important partners of ASEAN, and ASEAN does not want to have to choose between those partners”, the secretary general of the bloc, Le Luong Minh, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
“Given this situation, some people are hyping the situation by spreading that kind of information”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily briefing in Beijing.
China had insisted repeatedly this week it was not undertaking any island-building activities at the shoal.
“Countries in the region are the biggest beneficiaries of peace in the South China Sea”.
Speaking on the sidelines of a regional summit in Vientiane, Laos, Liu Zhenmin said that China and the Philippines had had “thousands of years” of good relations.
“The Chinese side has maintained a number of coast guard vessels for law enforcement patrols in the waters of Huangyan Dao”, the embassy said, referring to the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal.
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The US has been persistent in highlighting its concerns about Beijing’s claims over the sea and has even conducted several military drills in the region.
