FIVE years after the Permanent Court of Arbitration awarded the Philippines a major victory by junking China’s sweeping claim in the South China Sea, Beijing continued to refuse to recognize the ruling.
“The award of the arbitration is illegal, null and void. It is nothing more than a piece of waste paper. China does not accept or participate in the arbitration, nor does it accept or recognize the award,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a press briefing in Beijing and a subsequent statement posted by the Chinese Embassy in Manila late Monday night.
“China’s sovereignty and rights and interests over the South China Sea are not affected at all by the arbitration and China does not accept any claim or act based on it,”
Duterte, in May during his regular weekly address, called the country’s arbitral victory a piece of paper that he can throw away in a trash can, and said the ruling is just a piece of paper that led to nothing. It was contrary to his statement before the United Nations General Assembly in September last year that the Philippines rejects any attempts to undermine the ruling. Duterte has been calling China his “good friend.”
Zhao said the “arbitration violated the principle of state consent and the arbitral tribunal exercised its jurisdiction ultra vires and rendered an award in disregard of law.”
“’The arbitration has major fallacies in fact-finding and application of law and violates the UNCLOS and international law,” he added.
The previous Aquino administration filed the case against China before the arbitral tribunal in 2013, with the award issued in 2016 in Manila’s favor.
But China has refused to honor the ruling and insisted on bilateral talks to settle the dispute, all the while embarking on aggressive activities in the region, including the building of man-made islands, several of which are inside the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone, and the deployment of Navy, Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels to harass other claimant countries.
Aside from the Philippines and China, other countries with claims to parts of the South China Sea are Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Taiwan.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to stop its provocative behavior in the South China Sea as he also took the opportunity to reaffirm Washington’s defense obligation under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines.
Blinken reiterated the call for China to respect and abide by its obligations under international laws, cease its provocative behavior, and take steps to reassure the international community that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order.
But Zhao accused the US of taking advantage of the fifth anniversary of the arbitral award to “hype up” the issue to smear and suppress China.
“It deliberately stokes disputes on territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, sows discord among regional countries and undermines regional peace and stability. This is extremely irresponsible. China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the wrong act by the US side,” he said.
“The US accusations that our maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea have no basis in international law totally runs counter to facts,” he added.
Zhao said China will always upholds international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) as he turned the table on Washington saying that the latter is not even a signatory to the said Convention.
Manila and Beijing are both signatories to the 1982 UNCLOS.
Also, he said Beijing always advocates friendly negotiations and consultations to settle the maritime dispute in the South China Sea and exercises maximum restraint in safeguarding its sovereignty, rights and interests in the said water, contrary to Washington’s accusation that it is militarizing the area.
Zhao said the US and other countries outside the region should respect the regional countries in resolving the dispute and in maintaining peace and stability in the area.
“China urges the US to stop abusing international law, stop the use of force or the threat of force and stop making provocations in the South China Sea,’ he added.
