The specifics of whether China can lay claim to the heavily-contested waters of the South China Sea may have been resolved by The Hague’s ruling in favor of the Philippines, but business and trade relations between the two countries could still cloud the issue.
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A senior Chinese official on Tuesday brushed off calls for a boycott of the Philippines after an worldwide arbitration court found for Manila in its dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea.
Saying that countries outside the region might only cause more problems in the dispute, Beijing has warned them to stay out of the issue, which it says “should be left to the countries of East and Southeast Asia”.
Along with the KFC protests, images have circulated online of young Chinese wearing scarves emblazoned with patriotic slogans smashing their iPhones in protest over the ruling.
Dealing a major blow to Beijing’s insistence that it has special rights to the South China Sea and in a victory for the Philippines, an global tribunal of judges decided last week that China’s claims to the critical waterway are without legal merit.
Noting that the USA hasn’t itself ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Fein said, “How do we lecture on other countries on complying with UNCLOS?”
Over the next five years, at least eight Chinese ships will offer trips to the South China Sea, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday, as China continues to promote tourism to the disputed waters. “But so-called patriotism that willfully sacrifices public order will only bring damage to the nation and society”, a People’s Daily editorial said Wednesday.
State media has called on people to oppose “irrational patriotism” over the case.
“However, trust in China is very low and Beijing will have to demonstrate the sincerity of its intentions fairly quickly”, Kuok said.
Writing in National Interest on Saturday, analyst Dean Cheng pointed out that one of the new President’s first actions in the wake of the PCA decision was to ask former President Fidel Ramos to visit Beijing to initiate talks.
“The fact is that they can’t point to an actual obstruction of freedom of the seas, so they just say you are endangering it because you have the potential to do it”, Fein said.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry renewed on Wednesday the Syrian government’s support to China regarding the South China Sea issue.
Sohu reported that police in Jiangsu province in the east had ordered KFC stores to close to prevent disturbances.
Richardson appealed to the Chinese to “take advantage of our common culture as sailors” to avoid confrontation, while calling on the government to stop the intimidation of regional allies and settle territorial disputes through negotiation.
“This definitely helps the forces pushing back against the Chinese government’s attempts to manipulate nationalist fervor”, he said.
Hong Kong political commentator Willy Lam said there is little immediate threat from heightened military tensions in the region, in spite of recent PLA military exercises around the Paracel Islands ahead of the court ruling.
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“The US Navy will continue to conduct routine and lawful operations around the world, including in the South China Sea”, John Richardson said while visiting a navy base in northern China.
