‘China violated Philippines’ sovereign rights’

An arbitration court ruled on Tuesday that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and has breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights with its actions, infuriating Beijing which dismissed the case as a farce.

A defiant China, which boycotted the hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, vowed again to ignore the ruling and said its armed forces would defend its sovereignty and maritime interests. China’s Xinhua news agency said shortly before the ruling was announced that a Chinese civilian aircraft had successfully tested two new airports in the disputed Spratly Islands. And China’s defence ministry said a new guided missile destroyer was formally commissioned at a naval base on the southern island provi-nce of Hainan, which has responsibility for the South China Sea.

The panel said there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within its so-called nine-dash line, which covers almost 90 per cent of the South China Sea. It said China had interfered with traditional Philippines fishing rights at Scarborough Shoal and had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by exploring for oil and gas near the Reed Bank. None of China’s reefs and holdings in the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone, it added.

China’s foreign ministry rejected the ruling, saying its people had more than 2,000 years of history in the South China Sea, that its islands did have exclusive economic zones and that it had announced to the world its “dotted line” map in 1948.

“China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by those awards,” it said. However, the ministry also repeated that China respected and upheld the freedom of navigation and overflight and that China was ready to keep resolving the disputes peacefully through talks with states directly concerned. Before the ruling, China’s defence ministry said its armed forces would “firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and maritime interests and rights, firmly uphold regional peace and stability, and deal with all kinds of threats and challenges”