On July 12, 2016, the so-called South China Sea Arbitration Tribunal issued an award in an attempt to deny China's territorial sovereignty and its legitimate maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea.
The Chinese government immediately stated its objection to the arbitration and refused to recognize the award.China has made clear its stance: the so-called award on the South China Sea arbitration seriously violates international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and is illegal, null and void.
China would neither participate in nor accept any outcome of the process.Saying the award was "null and void and has no binding force," the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the aim of the Philippines was not to resolve the dispute nor to maintain peace and stability, but simply to deny China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.China in 2024 released a report to reaffirm its firm objection to the ruling, saying it severely damages the international legal order and maritime governance.The report claims to disclose the political background of the arbitration tribunal and the historical errors of its ruling, and aims to promote relevant parties to resolve disputes through negotiation and manage crises through rule-based approaches.Why does China refuse to accept and participate in the arbitration proceedings? As a sovereign state, China has the right to choose how to resolve disputes – a legitimate right granted to sovereign states by international law.Meanwhile, the arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is fraught with issues such as abuse of dispute settlement procedures, distortion of concepts and deliberate obscuring of the essence of the dispute.
It did not possess the legal basis to proceed from the outset.Illegal, null and voidAlthough the arbitration case was presented in various forms, the essence of the Philippine claims concerned China's territorial sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and maritime delimitation issues.Territorial issues are beyond the scope of the UNCLOS, and China had explicitly excluded maritime delimitation from compulsory arbitration in a declaration made in 2006, in accordance with UNCLOS concerning the optional exceptions to the applicability of the UN Convention.The Philippines' unilateral initiation of arbitration on the basis of UNCLOS breached its bilateral agreement with China to settle relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiations, ran counter to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed by China and ASEAN countries including the Philippines in 2002, and violated international law including UNCLOS.Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, only the United States has not joined UNCLOS, while the other four, including China, have all made similar declarations of exclusion.
The arbitral tribunal exceeded its mandate and abused the UNCLOS dispute settlement mechanism, undermining the rule of law in international maritime affairs and engaging in actions contrary to the very Convention it claimed to uphold.The illegal award has been much questioned by the international community.
Many world-renowned experts and scholars on international laws and treaties, including former president of the International Court of Justice and former judges of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, have pointed out the serious flaws in the award.
China's position of not accepting or recognizing the award won support from more than 100 countries.The majority of disputes in today's world are resolved through negotiation and consultation between the directly concerned parties.
Whether it is bilateral or multilateral negotiations, or resolution through international mechanisms, the prerequisite is that the directly concerned countries must reach an agreement or a consensus.China's position and claims regarding this case are in line with the fundamental spirit of international law and the practice of international relations.Expounding China's position on the arbitration case while attending the ASEAN Plus foreign ministers' meetings on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it is widely recognized that the arbitration case and the subsequent hype were orchestrated and manipulated by forces outside the region, with the aim of disrupting peace in the South China Sea and serving their own interests.China's position is precisely about upholding the principle of international rule of law and the authority of UNCLOS, he said, adding that any attempt to stir up trouble or sow discord will fail.