BEIJING
China has reiterated that it will not recognize the decision of an arbitration tribunal where the Philippines presented its case regarding territorial disputes over potentially resource-rich parts of the South China Sea.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the government had “expounded its position of neither accepting nor participating in the arbitral proceeding unilaterally initiated by the Philippines in disregard of China's legitimate rights bestowed upon her by international law."
The comments came after an international tribunal at The Hague concluded hearings Monday in an arbitration case filed by the Philippines in early 2013. A Philippine delegation had argued since last week that Beijing has no right to exercise what it refers to as "historic rights" over areas of the South China Sea – which Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.
"On the issue of territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, China will never accept any imposed plan, nor any solution arrived at by unilaterally resorting to a third party for resolving disputes," Hua stressed late Tuesday.
Reiterating China’s stance on addressing the dispute through bilateral talks, she told reporters, “China urges the Philippines to return to the right approach of resolving relevant disputes through negotiation and consultation as soon as possible."
She accused the Philippines’ arbitration moves of ignoring China's legitimate rights under international laws.
During the presentation at The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration last week, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario had accused China's actions of trampling other nations' rights and damaging vast coral reefs irreversibly. He asked the tribunal to declare China's claims to all the South China Sea invalid.
China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, but several other Asian nations – including Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan -- have also laid claim.
It uses the so-called “nine-dash line” on the map to assert ownership of almost the entire South China Sea, while the Philippines uses the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as basis for its claim.
