The South China Sea dispute involves both island and maritime claims among several sovereign states within the region: Brunei, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
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A defiant China today said the UN-backed tribunals verdict should be dumped into garbage and asserted that it has the right to declare a unilateral air-defence zone over the strategic South China Sea after its expansive maritime claims in the region was shunned by a five- member worldwide jury.
“The Chinese government’s stance on the ruling is clear…it’s nothing but a scrap of paper”, he said, according to the Financial Times.
“It is not like imposing one party’s will on the other” unlike the Philippines which “unilaterally” filed the petition in Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), he said.
Beijing issued two statements immediately after the arbitration ruling was announced.
“Despite the opposition of Vietnam and concerns by the worldwide community, those actions conducted by China have seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty and are unlawful and can not change the fact about Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes”, Binh told reporters, referring to the Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
Liu’s ministry hit out at a “dozen countries” who were advising Beijing to accept the ruling of the United Nations tribunal, a day after it had rejected Beijing’s claim over 90% of the South China Sea. The US, on the other hand, can respond to China’s belligerence with trade sanctions and even egg on the Philippines to take the matter to the International Court of Justice. It also stressed that the tribunal’s ruling will have no effect on its sovereignty and interests in the region. He said that “the next step is to move forward and let diplomacy reign”. Romana told ABS-CBN network that the challenge for Duterte now is how to combine engagement and deterrence.
Diplomatically, the USA and like-minded allies are trying to put worldwide pressure on China to abide by the findings of the arbitration tribunal.
Mr Duterte has adopted a more conciliatory approach than his predecessor Benigno Aquino, saying the Philippines would be willing to share natural resources with China in contested areas if the tribunal ruled in its favour.
“Japan strongly expects that the parties’ compliance with this award will eventually lead to the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea”, Kishida emphasized. Some refer to “historic rights”, others to “traditional Chinese fishing grounds”, while still others suggest that it is merely shorthand for describing all the land features in the South China Sea over which China claims sovereignty.
Such construction has occurred on seven previously unoccupied locations in the Spratlys: Mischief Reef, Subi Reef, Gaven Reef and Hughes Reef (all previously submerged at high tide), and Johnson South Reef, Cuarteron Reef and Fiery Cross Reef (all previously part-exposed at high tide, but uninhabitable).
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“In theory we could sail within 500 meters” of Mischief Reef, said Michael McDevitt, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral with long experience in the Pacific.
