China has sternly warned the Philippines and 13 allied countries to “stop stirring up trouble” over the South China Sea (SCS), following their rare joint call to Beijing to abide by the 2016 arbitral award, which the latter deemed a “worthless piece of paper”, on its 10th anniversary on Sunday. 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s scathing remarks were in response to the joint statement by the Philippines, the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Romania, reaffirming the landmark decision handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 2016 that unanimously favored Manila by invalidating Beijing’s sweeping claims in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

The countries upheld the tribunal’s decision rendered 10 years ago as “final, legally binding and definitive,” which China must adhere to. 

The joint statement did not sit well with Beijing, which viewed it as blatant “disrespect” of China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights in the SCS, and as undermining peace and stability in the region.

China reiterated that its sovereign rights over the SCS, including areas that overlap with the WPS, have been historically established, citing the presence of Chinese nationals over the contested waterway “as early as 200 B.C.”

“China is the first to have continuously, peacefully, and effectively exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over Nanhai Zhudao (SCS Islands) and relevant waters. Nanhai Zhudao has long been widely recognized by the international community as part of China’s territory,” read the statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry late Sunday. 

The PCA’s ruling found that China has no legal basis to claim “historic rights” within the “nine-dash line.” The decision by the Hague-based tribunal was consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which both the Philippines and China are state parties.

However, China remained headstrong in its refusal to heed the decision, arguing that land territorial issues are not subject to UNCLOS, and merely govern maritime entitlements, but do not determine territorial sovereignty over land features.

Hence, China contended that it “will not accept any imposed solution with respect to territorial issues and maritime delimitation disputes.”

The Philippines and its 13 allied countries maintained that China holds no legal rights, not even “historic rights”, over the waters of the WPS as explicitly declared in the ruling. 

No legal binding 

Beijing, in response, countered that the arbitration violates fundamental principles of international law and contravenes UNCLOS itself, and thus is not legally binding.

“The so-called ‘award’ is nothing but a worthless piece of paper that is illegal, null and void, and has no binding force. China does not accept or recognize the ‘award,’ and opposes and does not accept any claim or action based on it,” it said. 

“China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea shall not be affected by the ‘award’ under any circumstances,” the statement further reads. 

Similarly, China pointed out that the award failed to resolve the maritime row in the SCS, and merely served as a weapon for the Philippines to “expand” its maritime claims, and “exacerbated tensions” in the region as a “pretext for external forces to intervene and destabilize” the SCS.

China argued that Manila’s alleged illegal claims in the SCS have invited provocation in the region, involving its allies, like the US.

China pointed to the US’s persistent military presence in the SCS, accusing Washington of “throwing [its] weight around and fanning the flames. “

“These acts of militarization and coercion constitute the primary challenge to the current situation in the South China Sea,” it argued.

As a longstanding ally of Manila, the US has repeatedly declared its robust support for the Philippines amid its relentless push for independent maritime rights in the WPS.

The Philippines and the US share a decades-long alliance anchored on the Mutual Defense Treaty. 

Washington has declared that MDT extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, and aircraft anywhere in the Pacific, including the SCS.