An arbitration court in The Hague ruled in July that China had no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and had infringed on the rights of the Philippines, which brought the case under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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The photos were released during an annual summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos, and the bloc voiced alarm.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying says this week’s ASEAN meetings have produced the steps needed to get the Declaration on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea finalized.
“We stand in solidarity and support of China’s position on this issue not to recognise the decision of this court”.
The ruling by the arbitral tribunal in The Hague effectively invalidated what China calls its historical rights over most of the sea, and further admonished it for conducting vast reclamation work in contested waters to bolster its claims.
It was an apparent attempt to publicize its concerns before ASEAN leaders met with Chinese Premier Li Kequiang in the Laotian capital in a side summit.
India and the USA have been calling for freedom of passage in the global waters, much to the discomfort to Beijing, whose claim over SCS was recently struck down by the worldwide tribunal in favour of the Philippines.
But the Philippines yesterday released images it said showed Chinese ships in the area that were capable of dredging sand and other activities required to build an artificial island.
Japan’s dispute with China is over uninhabited islands controlled by Tokyo.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims over parts of the sea, through which some $5 billion in trade passes every year.
“The island has been blockaded since 2012 but hasn’t been built up so this would be new”, said Ashley Townshend, a research fellow at the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney and a visiting fellow at the Center for Asia-Pacific Cooperation and Governance at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“It seems that every country played down the level of conflict, therefore the tone of the meeting was quite friendly and emphasized peace and security within the region”, said Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a Thai government spokesman.
Running counter to the trend of solving disputes through dialogue and consultation, only two countries outside the region proposed pushing the so-called South China Sea “arbitration” at the summit.
Li heads the State Council of China, which is “the highest organ of state power” and “highest organ of state administration there”.
Also wishing to strengthen U.S. ties with the regional grouping in areas such as technology and innovation that would help facilitate economic growth, Obama “expressed his supportive stance over TPP talks in the region”, Werachon said, referring to the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement signed by 12 countries, including Japan but not China.
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President Obama’s visit was his eighth to an ASEAN summit, reflecting the region’s growing importance.
