Chinese officials may spout off about cooperation and friendship, but as long as Beijing refuses to recognize our legitimate claims over the West Philippine Sea, Filipinos will continue to regard them with suspicion—and even resentment.
All this despite the best efforts of the Duterte administration to set the territorial dispute aside in favor of Chinese loans and investments. To many Filipinos incensed over the blatant disrespect, that’s just lipstick on a pig.
On the fourth anniversary of the historic UN arbitration ruling in favor of the Philippines, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. issued a statement calling on China to respect the arbitral award.
The ruling, Locsin said, had “conclusively settled the issue of historic rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea.”
“The Tribunal authoritatively ruled that China’s claim of historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’ had no basis in law… The award is non-negotiable,” Locsin said.
But Beijing quickly rejected the appeal.
“China’s position is consistent, clear and firm,” said the Chinese Embassy in Manila in a statement posted Monday on Twitter but which had just as quickly been deleted.
“The South China Sea arbitration and so-called award are illegal and invalid,” the embassy said.
The embassy said China does not accept or participate in the arbitration, nor does it accept or recognize the so-called award.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including waters claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam, under its hoary “nine-dash-line” policy that the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague found invalid, and that in fact, the rest of the world rejects.
On his fifth visit to China last year. President, Duterte brought up the arbitral ruling but his “friend” and counterpart Xi Jinping quickly shot the topic down, sayiing Beijing would not budge from its position.
Instead of addressing the UN arbitral decision, China speaks in motherhood statements about friendship and cooperation—while continuing its aggressive buildup in the West Philippine Sea.
But in a significant turn of events, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo came down strongly on the side of ASEAN claimants—including the Philippines– against China, breaking the American policy of neutrality in territorial disputes.
“Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them,” Pompeo said, echoing the sentiments of many in Manila tired of the Chinese running roughshod over the Philippines’ sovereign rights.
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law,” Pompeo said.
The import of the statement from Washington was not lost on former Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio, who has been outspoken about the need to assert our territorial rights.
The navies of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, India and Japan are sailing the high seas and exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation, Carpio said, an act that enforces “a core part” of the 2016 award that the administration has been reluctant to assert.
Carpio said Southeast Asian states that are asserting their rights to their EEZs have a “natural strategic partnership” with these navies, and if China persists in its aggressive encroachment, these states can respond by joining the naval powers in their freedom of navigation and overflight operations in the EEZs and the South China Sea.
The suggestion isn’t all that difficult to implement—the country already participates in and hosts regular joint military exercises with the United States. By joining in freedom of navigation and overflight operations, we could hold a mirror up to China and show its leaders that the lipstick isn’t all that appealing.
Mr. Wong is associate editor of Manila Standard.
