Earlier in July, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled, in a case brought by the Philippines, that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to South China Sea resources.
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Hainan’s maritime administration said an area southeast of the island province would be closed from Monday to Thursday, but gave no details about the nature of the exercises.
However, the worldwide tribunal sided with the Philippines in ruling China’s claimed historic rights to resources within the so-called nine-dash line had no legal basis.
Chinese dredging vessels in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who said before the ruling that he wanted to start talks with China on the issue, has not commented on the tribunal’s decision, but described the territorial disputes as a complicated issue that may affect his country’s economy as well as ties with the US, a key treaty ally. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
Commander of the Chinese navy, Admiral Wu Shengli (L) and U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson (C) walk past a member of an honor guard whose hat falls off during a welcome ceremony held at the Chinese Navy Headquarters in Beijing, China, July 18, 2016. State broadcaster CCTV later reported that Admiral Wu reiterated China’s determination to defend all of its territorial claims in the South China Sea and would not permit its interests to be infringed on, a standard position for Chinese officials.
“They said if you will insist on the ruling, discussing it along those lines, then we might be headed for a confrontation”, Yasay said during an interview with the news channel of broadcaster ABS-CBN. China has also reportedly built military installations on reclaimed islands, including runways and missile launchers.
Half of the 10 ASEAN countries have some sort of South China Sea dispute with Beijing, but China’s ally Cambodia said it does not want the bloc to mention the ruling.
Manila – which had lodged the suit against Beijing in 2013 – welcomed the ruling but China responded by saying it “does not accept and does not recognise” the decision and dismissed the ruling as a “piece of waste paper”.
China’s Central Military Commission Admiral Sun Jianguo declared on Monday that any intervention in the naval exercises by military patrols could end “in disaster”, Russia Today reported.
The South China Sea is a strategic maritime crossroad for global freight.
President Barack Obama’s nominee for the next USA ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, said the United States would support China-Philippines negotiations that were free from “coercion and undue pressure”.
Dozens of Vietnamese who gathered for an anti-China protest in central Hanoi were taken away by authorities yesterday as they tried to rally support for an worldwide tribunal’s ruling rejecting Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea.
China is expected to start maritime drills in the South China Sea late on Monday, the country’s Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) said.
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Terming China as the biggest beneficiary of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea he was quoted as saying at a meeting here that Beijing won’t let anybody damage it.
