China’s strongly-worded reactions comes just a day after an global tribunal rejected the country’s claim over a vast expanse of the strategic South China Sea, ruling that Beijing had no “legal” or “historic” claim over the waters.
Advertisement
Lo said Chinese media and academics have been proposing cross-strait cooperation on the South China Sea issue and asked for the ministry’s view. The tribunal agreed that China had no legal authority to claim the waters and was infringing on the sovereign rights of the Philippines.
“The ruling can serve as a foundation on which we can start the process of negotiations which hopefully will eventually lead to the peaceful settlement of the maritime dispute in the South China Sea”, Charles Jose, a spokesman for the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, said.
In government paper on the tribunal’s findings which was released on Wednesday, China reiterated its claims over the land and maritime territory.
Whether Beijing set up such a zone – which would require civilian aircraft to identify themselves to military controllers – depended on “the level of threat we receive”, said vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin.
Though the ruling is binding, the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no power to enforce its decision.
It justifies its sovereignty claims by saying it was the first to have discovered, named and exploited the sea, and outlines its claims for most of the waterway using a vague map made up of nine dashes that emerged in the 1940s.
The UN said the International Court of Justice, its principal judicial organ set up according to the Charter of the UN, is also located in the Peace Palace.
On Tuesday, an worldwide tribunal in The Hague ruled that China has no historic rights to the area within its self-declared nine-dash line and that Taiwan has no right to Itu Aba, also called Taiping, the largest island in the Spratlys. It brokered a Pacific free trade pact, which excluded China, and secured five new military bases in the Philippines.
Apart from China, the South China Sea is also claimed in full or parts by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
In this February 27, 2015, photo, provided by Filipino fisherman Renato Etac, Chinese Coast Guard members approach Filipino fishermen near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
The ruling is expected to further increase tensions in the region, where China’s increased military assertiveness has spread concern among its smaller neighbours and is a point of confrontation with the US.
Advertisement
It is a problem that Beijing has reiterated its position of not accepting the ruling by the arbitration court, insisting that it should not handle the case. She added that Australia would continue to exercise its right to freedom of navigation, but did not mention if Australia would conduct patrols within 12 nautical miles of China’s contested Spratly islands, ABC News reported.
