The test flights were conducted a day after an worldwide tribunal in The Hague ruled that Beijing’s claims to areas of the resource-rich sea have no legal basis in an arbitration launched by the Philippines, whose “sovereign rights” it said China had violated.
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Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that China must accept a verdict declaring its South China Sea claims are invalid that the government and needs to halt its artificial island building in the disputed waters.
Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan are also claiming a stake in the area. Taiwan lays claim to several island groups in the 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.
“The Philippines also has territorial pretensions on China’s Huangyan Dao and attempted to occupy it illegally”, said the whitepaper, which has elaborated the current situation and China’s policy on the South China Sea issue.
“Secretary Yasay will discuss within the context of ASEM’s agenda the Philippines’ peaceful and rules-based approach on the South China Sea and the need for parties to respect the recent decision”, the foreign affairs department said in a statement.
“We now have a ruling from an global tribunal a convention to which China has ratified”, Carpio said, referring to the Scarborough Shoal where China has banned Filipinos from fishing.
Jin Canrong, deputy director of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, said the most important task for China at the moment is to prevent a “domino effect” among claimant states such as Vietnam in the South China Sea (SCS).
The People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpiece, branded the award and the request by the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III to set up the tribunal as being “manipulated and instigated by external forces”.
According to the PCA, no islands in the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago entitle China a right to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and China does not have rights over the 200-nautical mile EEZs of Vanh Khan (Michief) and Co May (Thomas) reefs.
For China, which sought to challenge the influence of the United States in the region, the ruling is a setback. The verdict may also prove beneficial for India’s economic and strategic interests, as the South Asian country can explore oil in the South China Sea off Vietnam coast.
Cui said China always supports negotiations among the concerned parties, but the ruling will undermine the possibility of diplomacy.
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In China, social media users reacted with outrage to the ruling.
