Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to stay out of the issue as they met at a regional summit in Mongolia just days after an global court ruled Beijing had no historic claims to most of the sea.
Advertisement
The original report was deleted from CNNC’s account on social media platform WeChat on Friday, and a staffer at the firm told AFP that it “needed to confirm” its accuracy.
Under a 1982 United Nations treaty governing the world’s oceans, the Philippines had sought arbitration in 2013 on several issues related to territorial rifts with China.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed with his Vietnamese counterpart that an arbitration court’s decision this week on the South China Sea must be observed, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Friday.
It also found that China’s activities had inflicted severe damage to fragile coral ecosystems and caused serious harm to endangered species.
In another blow to China, the tribunal also ruled that none of the features in the Spratly Islands – claimed in whole by China, Vietnam and Taiwan – made them islands in the technical sense, but were either low-tide elevations with no territorial claims or rocks that can not sustain human habitation on their own, and therefore are not an economic zone.
The US put itself on a collision course with China on Tuesday when it described the ruling as “final and legally binding”.
The Chinese Government has released relevant statements and a White Paper stating its solemn position of firmly opposing the arbitration and not accepting or recognizing the award, he said.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, “Australia has consistently said that we take no position on the competing claims”.
The Chinese government has tried to have the best of both worlds – by citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea when it was in its interest, and citing history when its claims ran counter to what is laid down in that treaty.
An arbitration court in The Hague ruled this week China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and that it has breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights with its actions, infuriating Beijing, which dismissed the case as a farce.
India and China have so far held 19 rounds of talks to resolve the boundary dispute.
He broke his silence on the issue late on Thursday at a private function and said he wanted dialogue with China and to send former President Fidel Ramos to Beijing to break the ice.
Ashley Townshend, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, said the U.S. remained cautious on where it stood on the South China Sea row.
Advertisement
The CNNC plant is expected to start operation in 2019 and CGN’s the following year, according to their statements.
