Arbitral court ruling won’t ease sea tensions – US

MANILA, Philippines – A favorable decision by an international arbitral court on Manila’s maritime case against Beijing is no guarantee of an easing of tensions in the South China Sea, a senior US official said yesterday.

Tension is likely to persist in the region, the official said, even if the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rules in favor of Manila, as China has made it clear it would not honor a verdict repudiating its expansive claim in the South China Sea.

Reports quoting sources said China is even planning to set aside the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The same official, who declined to be named, also said China is using its fishing fleets with armed escorts to bolster maritime claims in disputed territory. But the official, in a teleconference in Manila with journalists from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Beijing, said the US is not taking sides on the issue.

“We are expecting a ruling in the next several weeks in the arbitration case that’s been brought by the Philippines with respect to maritime entitlement in the South China Sea… South China Sea is an important maritime space for the international community. Asia is the most populous and economically dynamic region in the world and as such, South China Sea a global significance,” the senior US State Department official said.

As such, the state department official said the US will sustain its role in ensuring regional peace by continuously enforcing freedom of navigation and overflight operations over the South China Sea and East China Sea regions.

There were reports the UN court is handing down its verdict either before the end of the month or in early July.

The US has deployed two of its carrier strike groups to the Philippine Sea ahead of the verdict.

“Our freedom of navigation program globally is in that demonstrating that the US will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever the laws allow. So in that sense, I think that it has been successful in demonstrating in East Asia that that we will continue to uphold that policy,” the US official said while calling on China to refrain from making provocative actions.

The arbitration case presents a good opportunity to go back to principles and to attempt to steer the conversation about the South China Sea issue, the official said.

Solid backing

The official added that the Philippines will have the solid backing of the international community in exploring ways of convincing Beijing to abide by the court ruling.

“I would say that our security commitment to the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) is ironclad. We take anything that concerns Philippine security very seriously and we will be working with all our partners in the region to analyze the ruling and to respond to anything that may happen after that,” the US official said.

The official also expressed concern over China’s tactics of sending Coast Guard ships to escort its fleet of fishing vessels in disputed waters.

“It’s a disturbing trend to see Chinese fishing vessels accompanied by its Coast Guard vessel to assert a claim that is not legitimate,” the official said.

The comments came after Indonesian warships fired warning shots and detained a Chinese-flagged fishing boat and seven crew near the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea last week, in actions slammed by Beijing.

“I do think that it does point to an expanding presence of Chinese – sort  of military and paramilitary forces – and used in a way that is provocative and potentially destabilizing,” the US official added.

Unlike several other countries in the region, Indonesia has no overlapping claims with China to islets or reefs in the sea, but Beijing’s claim to fishing rights near the Natunas appears to overlap with Jakarta’s exclusive economic zone.

Last week’s incident was only the latest in a series of skirmishes between the two countries since Jakarta launched a crackdown on illegal fishing in 2014.

In March, Chinese coast uards rammed a Chinese boat detained near the Natunas and helped it escape as the Indonesians towed the vessel to shore.

And last month, the Indonesian navy opened fire on a Chinese trawler near the islands and seized the vessel.

Following last week’s confrontation, the commander of the Indonesian navy’s western fleet said the fishing vessel incursions were “structured,” indicating  Beijing had “given its blessing.”

“China protested because it thinks this area is theirs,” commander Achmad Taufiqoerrochman told reporters.

“Actually the (fish) stealing is just a ruse to stake its claim,” he added.

China has undertaken land reclamation works in the Spratly Islands, one of the South China Sea’s main archipelagoes which are also claimed by the

Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Beijing praises ally

China, meanwhile, praised its ASEAN ally Cambodia for siding with Beijing on the South China Sea row.

“We highly commend and appreciate Prime Minister Hun Sen’s remarks at the commencement of Cambodia’s academy of governance yesterday,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a press conference in Beijing.

The Cambodian leader has voiced his country’s rejection of arbitration as means of settling the maritime dispute.

Chinese pressure was blamed for ASEAN’S retraction of a statement sounding alarm over Beijing’s island building in the South China Sea.

The original document, released by ASEAN member Malaysia and described as a joint statement from the bloc, warned that developments in the hotly contested South China Sea could “undermine peace, security and stability.”

“China will not accept any solution imposed upon it nor any unilateral resort to a third party dispute settlement procedure,” Hua said. “China remains committed to resolving relevant disputes through negotiation with sovereign states directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law,” she said.

The Chinese foreign ministry also accused the Western media of turning a “blind eye” to the  support by nations for Beijing’s position.

“It is no news to us that some western media sometimes call white black. But we know now that they also have problems with doing simple math,” Hua said, referring to media reports that only eight countries back China’s position.

“Some statements were reported, and some were not. Whatever way they chose, dozens of countries have made their voices heard,” she added. The countries backing China’s position are in Africa and are dependent on Chinese aid.

China’s top newspaper, for its part, has strongly criticized the US deployment of carriers to international waters near the Philippines.

The US carriers John C. Stennis and Ronald Reagan began joint operations in seas east of the Philippines at the weekend in a show of strength.

 “The US picked the wrong target in playing this trick on China,” the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, said in a commentary.

It was published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” a Chinese-language homonym for the phrase “voice of China” that is often used to express the paper’s views on foreign policy.

“Behind this misjudgment is Washington’s anxiety and arrogance, and it is the true expression of its hegemonic nature,” the paper added.

The US Navy chief said on Monday the deployment was a signal of the US commitment to regional security, adding that he hoped it would deter any attempts to destabilize the region.

The US Pacific Command (PACOM) said the carriers started their dual operations on Saturday, including air defense drills, sea surveillance, defensive air combat training and long-range strikes.

PACOM said the US last conducted a dual carrier operation in the Western Pacific in 2014. Two carriers operated in the South China Sea and East China Sea in 2012. – AP