CHINA blames the Aquino administration for creating trouble in South China, but it hopes to work with the Duterte administration to resolve the row in the South China Sea, Chinese Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday.
But the Foreign Affairs Department dismissed his claim, saying the issue was about China’s claim over the entire South China Sea that overlapped its neighbors’ water boundaries.
“The core issue is China’s claim of its so-called indisputable sovereignty over almost the entire SCS and its unilateral, aggressive and provocative actions to enforce that claim, Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose told The Standard in a text message.
Hong told reporters that the South China Sea arbitration case initiated by the Aquino administration was illegal, null and void from the outset, and that China would never accept any ruling by the arbitral tribunal on the matter.
He said China hoped that the Duterte administration would dialogue with China on the matter.
He said bilateral dialogues and consultations were the only viable way to resolve the dispute in the South China Sea.
“We hope that the new Philippine government will work in unison with us, veer away from the wrong path taken by the former government, return to the right track of having dialogue and consultation with China, and make tangible efforts to improve and develop China-Philippines relations,” Hong said.
Meanwhile, the Philippines invoked the United Nations’ commitment to the rule of law in support of an imminent decision by the arbitral tribunal in The Hague, which was constituted to hear the Philippines’ case on the South China Sea.
Ambassador Lourdes O. Yparraguirre, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea had been apprised of the developments in the arbitration proceedings since the last annual meeting in June 2015.
“We believe in the fairness and thoroughness of the arbitral proceedings, the binding character of the outcome, and the need for all States Parties to the Convention and all members of the international community to respect this outcome,” Ambassador Yparraguirre said.
“This [arbitral] award will be the rule of law on this dispute. The rule of law is a just and peaceful means of resolving disputes. The Philippines will fully respect the tribunal’s award as an affirmation of the Convention.”
The tribunal had found that it had jurisdiction to hear the Philippines’ case against China’s so-called nine-dash line claiming virtually all of the South China Sea, and that China as a State Party to UNCLOS would be bound by its decision even if it chose not to participate in the proceedings.
