NPR’s Anthony Kuhn explained on Facebook Live on Tuesday that China has “really talked up its position” on the South China Sea, so that the government is now concerned about how people will respond to the tribunal’s decision.
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Arthur Ding, a military expert based at Taiwan’s National Chengchi university, said: “China will be watching closely the reaction of other countries – particularly Vietnam”.
It is reported that on Wednesday Bishop called on all parties to respect the so-called ruling, which she described as final and legally binding, and she also said Australian ships and aircraft would continue to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight rights.
This development comes as Manila urged Beijing to respect a ruling by an arbitral tribunal at The Hague on Tuesday, which dismissed China’s claim that it has historic rights to resources in nearly two-thirds of the strategic sea, as marked out by its “nine-dash line” map from the 1940s. “China’s bilateral relations with the Philippines has suffered a huge blow”, Ruan said.
Yasay said both China and the Philippines have committed not to take provocative action. “We hope that other countries will not take this opportunity to threaten China, and work with China to protect the peace and stability of the South China Sea, and not let it become the origin of a war”.
According to the president, the award in the South China Sea arbitration initiated by the Philippines is a serious infringement on the rights of the ROC over the South China Sea islands and their surrounding waters.
The United States is using quiet diplomacy to persuade the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Asian nations not to move aggressively to capitalize on an global court ruling that denied China’s claims to the South China Sea, several US administration officials said on Wednesday.
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.
Philippines Wins Maritime Case: China DefiantIsland in the South China sea.
“I don’t think China wants a confrontation with the United States”, he told reporters.
China, which had boycotted the case brought by the Philippines, vowed to ignore the ruling, saying the UN-backed tribunal had no jurisdiction over the case and accused it of bias.
“They will really try so they would know where they have a right and if the (Chinese) would honor the law”, Mayor Arsenia Lim of Masinloc town said.
“On whether China will set up an air defense zone over the South China Sea, what we have to make clear first is that China has the right to…”
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The tribunal classified some of China’s islands as rocks, but others as only “low-tide elevations”, which are submerged at high tide and therefore not entitled to 12 nautical miles of territorial sea.
