BEIJING: China has again rejected an attempt by the Philippines to challenge its territorial claims over the South China Sea through international arbitration, a week before a deadline for Beijing to respond to the case.
BEIJING: China has again rejected an attempt by the Philippines to challenge its territorial claims over the South China Sea through international arbitration, a week before a deadline for Beijing to respond to the case.
China prefers to settle its disputes in discussions with the countries directly involved. However, after China took control of Scarborough Shoal following a tense naval stand-off with the Philippines near its coastline, Manila filed a case with a tribunal operating under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, which provides a regulatory framework for the use of the world's seas and oceans.
Xu Hong, director general of the Chinese foreign ministry's department of treaty and law, said the Philippines was "obstinately pushing forward arbitration procedures" and urged it to negotiate with Beijing instead.
He told reporters that China was committed to rejecting and not participating in the arbitration proceedings.
However the arbitration works, "it won't change the history or the facts of China's sovereignty over the South China Sea islands as well as the adjacent waters," Mr Xu said.
The document elaborates on China's previous arguments that territorial sovereignty is beyond the scope of the tribunal.
It said China's rejection of arbitration is in line with international law and that China and the Philippines have previously agreed to settle territorial disputes through negotiations.
The Filipino government will study China's paper and may issue a response later, Charles Jose, the department of foreign affairs spokesman, said in Manila.
The department has previously said it would proceed with the arbitration case against China because that legal avenue would lead to a "more durable" and rules-based solution to the long-simmering territorial disputes.
After China seized the disputed shoal, the Philippines started the tribunal process in January 2013, questioning the validity under international law of China's "nine-dash line" claim, a rough demarcation of China's territory on its official maps that virtually envelopes most of the South China Sea.
The tribunal has invited China to respond by December 15. Mr Xu said the publication of the paper was not linked to the deadline but had taken time to draw up.
China's claims in the South China Sea encompass waters and islands that the Philippines and four other Asian nations also say are theirs.
ends
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article