14, 2016. China warned other countries Wednesday against threatening its security in the South China Sea after an worldwide tribunal handed the Philippines a victory by saying Beijing had no legal basis for its expansive claims there.
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Relations between China and the Philippines plummeted over the row.
While introducing a policy paper in response to the ruling, Liu said the islands in the South China Sea were China’s “inherent territory” and blamed the Philippines for stirring up trouble.
“We have to sit down and discuss” the issues that the ruling raises, Xue said, a process that is “embedded in Asian culture”.
China had done so by interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration within the exclusive zone, as well as by building artificial islands there, the court ruled.
China has rejected the ruling, saying it will not comply. Japan under its leader Abe is seeking to change Japan’s Constitution imposed after World War II by the USA to seek more militarization to deal with a rising China, and Taiwan, and South Korea are also moving in that manner.
The decision, brought by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, was welcomed in Manila but Beijing’s reaction was anger and rejection, claiming that it “neither accepts nor recognizes” the ruling. China must be a responsible actor that respects the rule of law, even when decisions are not made in its favor.
When commenting the so-called ruling, Lu said the arbitration unilaterally filed by the Aquino III government, which violated worldwide law, is a political farce under the cloak of law.
A protester from a local pro-China party chants slogans against the United States supporting an global court ruling outside US Consulate in Hong Kong, China July 14, 2016.
Another senior South-east Asian diplomat said China has “succeeded in splitting Asean through its allies on the South China Sea issue”, referring to Laos and Cambodia.
The panel has no enforcement powers.
On Tuesday, the U.S. said it “strongly supported” the ruling on the South China Sea dispute, stressing that “the Tribunal unanimously found that the Philippines was acting within its rights under the Convention in initiating this arbitration”.
In 2013, China set up an air defense identification zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea, requiring all aircraft entering the area to notify Chinese authorities or be subjected to “emergency military measures” if they disobey orders from Beijing. “The U.S.is up; China is down”.
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Yet very few of these initiatives were taken seriously because maritime claims remained ambiguous, thereby rendering it hard to determine actual geographic areas of overlap and potential areas for cooperation. With some effort to clarify their claims, claimant-states may finally be able to come together to consider the much-needed cooperative approach to managing the various maritime issues South China Sea.
