President Xi Jingping responded by saying that China would “refuse to accept” the decision.
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In 2012, China and Philippines accused each other of intrusions.
Beijing says vast areas of the South China Sea have been Chinese territory since ancient times and demarcated its modern claims with the so-called nine-dash line, a map that was submitted under the United Nations treaty. The government will staunchly safeguard the country’s territory and sovereignty, and ensure that national interests are not jeopardized.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan’s claim over the Spratly Islands and their surrounding waters has been gravely damaged by a ruling from an global tribunal, and that Taiwan is dispatching a warship to patrol the area to defend its rights.
There are speculations that the Philippines plans to start negotiations with China armed with the arbitral court ruling. China’s foreign ministry said on its website, “The award is null and void and has no binding force”.
“We acknowledge the word issued by the court yesterday”. “The mission carries special significance as new changes just occurred yesterday in the South China Sea”.
Presenting a Chinese government paper on The Hague’s findings on Wednesday, Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said China would establish an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea “if our security is being threatened”.
The English-language China Daily blasted the tribunal’s award as “outrageously one-sided” and “inherently biased, unjust, and thus not executable”.
China’s claim, which is estimated to cover an area that carries about $5 trillion in annual trade, overlaps claims by the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
“China is always firmly opposed to the invasion and illegal occupation by certain states of some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha Qundao [South China Sea], and activities infringing upon China’s rights and interests in relevant maritime areas under China’s jurisdiction”, the dispatch added.
The State Department’s Russel rejects that and says the US believes in the spirit of the Law of the Sea: “Not the law of the jungle”, he says.
She said she expected to speak with her counterparts in China and the Philippines in coming days and that the ruling would be discussed at the upcoming ASEAN and East Asia Summit meetings in mid-July.
He said that Beijing would continue to uphold its sovereignty to its territories in the South China Sea and defend its rights to its controlled-islands despite the ruling.
Japan welcomed the arbitration ruling on July 12 by an worldwide tribunal denying China’s claims in the South China Sea, and plans to utilize it for its own dispute with Beijing in the East China Sea.
According to a copy of the text published by Xinhua, Beijing’s official news agency, the ruling against China had been based on “woefully weak pieces of evidence”, the white paper fumed.
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China has no historic rights in the waterway and undermined Taipei’s claims to islands there.
