Philippines rejects China talks not based on sea feud ruling

The Philippines” top diplomat says he has rejected a Chinese government offer to hold negotiations “outside of and in disregard’ of an global tribunal’s ruling last week that debunked Beijing’s claim to ownership of virtually the entire South China Sea.

China has come up with his plan after an global tribunal in Hague said that China’s expansive claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea waters had no legal basis.

It has reacted angrily to calls by Western countries and Japan for adherence to the decision.

The United Nations backed the PCA ruling that the 9-dash line of China’s claims over the South China Sea was illegal according to the United Nations Convention of the Law of Sea.

Nansha is China’s name for the Spratlys, where Beijing has rapidly turned reefs into artificial islands with facilities capable of military use, including extensive runways. China has always raised its objections with regards to freedom of navigation exercises the U.S.is conducting in the area.

It also continues to dredge ports and create landing fields in contested waters where nothing has existed before, even nearer to USA territories and our allies, while building a navy far out of proportion to defensive purposes, said the party at Republican convention here, led by its presidential candidate Donald Trump. Additionally, the U.S.is also strengthening its presence in the disputed region with an ever-increasing number of warships in the South China Sea.

A lot of people were none too pleased, in fact they were aghast and outraged by what Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay did when he issued the country’s response to the United Nations ruling.

“But China consistently opposes so-called military freedom of navigation, which brings with it a military threat and which challenges and disrespects the global law of the sea”, Sun said. “The other countries are free to place them wherever they like, as long as its not in the original South China Sea”.

“I think that you can visit China this time at our invitation, that shows both sides attach great concern to maritime security”, Wu told Richardson in brief comments in front of reporters.

“We will never stop our construction on the Nansha Islands halfway”, Wu Shengli, the commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, told USA counterpart Admiral John Richardson, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The Philippines made a decision to take its dispute with China to global arbitration in 2013 after China took control of Scarborough Shoal and reneged on a U.S. State Department-brokered deal for both countries to withdraw their ships from the area to ease a risky faceoff, according to former President Benigno Aquino III, who brought the case against Beijing.