Days after an worldwide tribunal ruled against Beijing’s claim to ownership of virtually the entire South China Sea (SCS), Beijing on Monday said that it is closing off a part of the SCS for military exercises this week, reported AP.
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China’s statements came after a ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague said last week that China’s claims to nearly all of the South China Sea are invalid.
The tribunal ruled that China’s nine-dash line encompassing much of the sea violates global maritime law because it encroaches on the Philippines’ own 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
Earlier in the day, China’s maritime administration announced that Beijing will close off access to part of the South China Sea for military drills.
Beijing lays claim to nearly all of the South China Sea, despite conflicting partial claims of Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Perhaps in the SCS case China and the Philippines, now under a new president, will find their way back to the negotiating table and work out a deal that skirts the always-difficult sovereignty issue.
The reports backed up a statement by China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday, which also quoted Phuc saying Vietnam “respect’s China’s position” on the arbitration.
The tribunal, called forth by the Philippines, also delivered a scathing rebuke of China’s military involvement in the region.
Philippine consul general for Guam Marciano De Borja said, “What the Philippines is saying is that all claimant countries, including china, they have a right to claim”. New Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte vowed not to “taunt or flaunt” the PAC ruling. In an interview with Senior Justice Antonio T. Carpio, aired on national television, he said the arbitral ruling confirmed that we indeed own as our exclusive economic zone that maritime space in the South China Sea with an area of about 381,000 square kilometers plus a continental shelf of about 150,000 square kilometers.
Zheng made this comment on the sidelines of the “Think Tank Seminar on the South China Sea and Regional Cooperation and Development” in Singapore, a gathering sponsored by the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
It is feared that China will use the new islands to extend its military reach.
The People’s Liberation Army assured the nation ahead of the ruling that it stood ready to meet any challenge from the South China Sea.
The military drill is likely to be seen as China’s effort to assert its claim over contested maritime territory in the wake of the global backlash over the South China Sea verdict.
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Roughly $5 trillion in shipping trade passes through the waterway annually. “Of course, it can help to improve our working and personal relationship”, said Adm Wu. The islands and rocks created pockets of disputed territorial sovereignty, but the sea areas around them could be jurisdictionally allocated to adjacent coastal states in accordance with UNCLOS. China argues that the court has no jurisdiction and refuses to accept the ruling.so the two admirals have a great deal to talk about, including whether China will act to reinforce its claims?
