“We always advocate multilateral negotiations and peaceful means to resolve the territorial disputes in the South China Sea”. China has intensified the drumbeat of its opposition…
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The findings of the Tribunal, if applied to other cases in the South China Sea, would strengthen Malaysia’s claim on features such as James Shoal or Beting Serupai, 80km northwest of Bintulu, Sarawak and well within the continental shelf of Malaysia and the 200 nautical mile EEZ.
The UN-backed tribunal also said that any “historic rights” to resources in the waters of the South China Sea were “extinguished” when China signed up to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
On Wednesday, Tsai said that the ruling “seriously damaged” Taiwan’s rights. And your uniforms represent the entrustment of the people.
It added that “China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards”.
In February, China deployed surface-to-air missiles on disputed islands in the South China Sea.
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 EU has “full confidence” in the arbitration panel and its procedures, Tusk told reporters.
The core of the relevant disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea lies in the territorial issues caused by the Philippines’ invasion and illegal occupation by force, starting in the 1970s, of some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha Qundao (the Nansha Islands), it said.
“Let us bear in mind: Where there is conflict over claims and opinions, cooperation can not exist”.
The big question now is what action, if any, Beijing will take in the wake of the tribunal’s decision. “China has established an ADIZ over the East China Sea”. “China neither accepts nor recognises it”, the foreign ministry said.
China launched naval drills in the northern areas, while the US Pacific Command said it had deployed an aircraft carrier for flights to support “security” in the sea.
The U.S. and others refuse to recognize the zone.
The tribunal, based in the Hague, ruled that there was no evidence that China had historic rights to the waters or resources that fell within its “nine-dash line”, and was violating the Philippine’s sovereign rights with its operations there.
Shen Dingli, professor and associate dean at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said China’s behavior in the South China Sea, where it’s turned sandbars into islands equipped with military airstrips, was unlikely to change.
Another said: “Although BBC and CNN wants to lead the discussion in favour of the Philippines, but excuse me?”
In a statement, the senator said the ruling “can serve as a reboot in the stalled China-Philippines diplomatic relations” and allow both countries, which have enjoyed “people-to-people interactions spanning thousands of years” and “common painful historical experiences and indignities as colonies of foreign powers”, to “come to the negotiating table with fresh perspectives”.
“It is the Philippines that has created and stirred up the trouble”, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said in introducing the paper.
She described the ruling as final and legally binding. “There would be strong reputational costs”.
Leading up to the tribunal’s ruling there have been many confrontations between fishing boats from several neighbouring countries and the Chinese navy.
While blaming the previous Philippine government for complicating the dispute by seeking arbitration, Liu also sought to strike a conciliatory note with the Southeast Asian nation’s new leadership.
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Cui was speaking at a Washington think tank hours after the tribunal issued its ruling Monday.
