The case against China was brought by USA ally the Philippines but the protesters’ public anger has been fueled in part by Chinese government accusations that Washington encouraged Manila to oppose Beijing’s claims to the vast tracts of ocean. United States forces would keep sailing, flying and operating wherever global law allows, Richardson added.
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The Philippines has turned down China’s offer to hold bilateral talks “outside of and in disregard” of an arbitral tribunal’s ruling last week that struck down Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.
The Foreign Affairs Secretary of the Philippines has confirmed that the nation will not engage in bilateral talks with China over the South China Sea under the terms Beijing has dictated, which requires Filipino diplomats to not mention the existence of a verdict in their favor issued by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. “This will not change”, Richardson said, according to a navy news release.
“We will never stop our construction on the Nansha Islands halfway”, Xinhua quotes Wu saying.
Asked if Beijing would retaliate trade-wise against Manila over the ruling, China’s Vice-Minister of Commerce Gao Yan said that trade ties with the Philippines were developing smoothly.
China’s authoritarian government generally forbids most forms of protest, but is also wary of being accused of stifling patriotism.
China rejected the ruling, branding it as null, void and a farce. KFC is a distinctly US-born company, and in the recent maritime-law dispute, the United States backed the Philippines, which initiated the court case against China. “The incremental gains from initiating new arbitration proceedings would be outweighed by the risk of complicating their relations with China”.
While other studies suggest that the South China Sea is rich in oil, sea salt and other minerals such as ilmenite, monazite, zircon, cassiterite, arenaceous and quartz.
Last Friday, a ruling by The Hague concluded China had no historical claims to the the South China Sea and had also breached the Philippines’ sovereign and economic rights.
The South China Sea is a major waterway connecting Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Fisher said it is likely that newly elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sought promises of Chinese investment in exchange for a restrained response to the ruling. Top U.S. leaders, including the defense secretary, have vowed that the military will fly, sail and operate everywhere allowed under worldwide law. Claiming its actions are routine “freedom of navigation” exercises, the US Navy has sailed within the 12-mile territorial limit of Beijing’s land reclamation projects. In January, the destroyer Curtis Wilbur did a similar patrol in the Paracel Islands.
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Chinese planes have also engaged recently in what the USA described as unsafe maneuvering close to American surveillance aircraft.
