Filtered By: Topstories
News

China calls PHL arbitration case a ‘political provocation’


China's foreign ministry on Thursday called the Philippines legal arbitration case against its claims in the South China Sea a "political provocation" aimed at denying Beijing's territorial rights.

Manila has assembled a crack international legal team to fight its unprecedented arbitration case under the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea - ignoring growing pressure from Beijing to scrap the action.

"China does not accept and will not participate in the Philippines' arbitration case on the South China Sea issue. This position is very clear," Hua Chunying, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, told media during a daily briefing in Beijing.

"We believe that the Philippines' case is actually a political provocation in the guise of the law that seeks to deny China's national sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea,"
The Philippines accused China of further encroachment when a naval frigate and two other ships steamed within five nautical miles of a dilapidated transport ship that Manila ran aground on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to mark its territory.

Manila's team is preparing arguments to show that the nine-dash line claim is invalid under the Law of the Sea. They are also seeking clarifications of the territorial limits, under the law, of rocks and shoals such as Scarborough - all part of a bid to confirm the Philippines' rights within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

China said on Tuesday (June 30) some of its land reclamation in the Spratlys, where it's building seven islands on top of coral reefs, had been completed, although it gave few details.

The claims of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are bisected by China's "nine-dash line" - the historic claim that reaches deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

Overlapping claims in the South China Sea - traversed by half the world's shipping tonnage - are one of the region's biggest flashpoints amid China's military build-up and the U.S. strategic "pivot" back to Asia. -Reuters

LOADING CONTENT