Joy, ire at S China Sea verdict

WAVE OF REACTIONS Vietnam, Philippines welcome ruling; Taiwan rejects it while Japan seeks compliance

MANILA: Dozens of Filipinos rallying in Manila jumped in joy, wept and waved Philippine flags after an international tribunal sided with their country against China’s claims on the South China Sea.

As expected, China rejected the ruling , dismissing it as “null and void.” Beijing said it will not accept or recognise the verdict which it described as having “no binding force”.

Taiwan, another claimant, also said it does not accept the tribunal’s ruling , adding the decision on Itu Aba, Taipei’s sole holding in the disputed Spratly Islands,had “seriously impaired” its territorial rights.

The arbitration court in The Hague ruled that China has no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and that it has breached the sovereign rights of the Philippines with its actions there.

Vietnam, whose claims on the sea also overlapped with China’s, welcomed the tribunal ruling. It said the ruling issued by he Permanent Court of Arbitration in supports the settlement of such disputes through diplomatic and legal processes.

In Manila, one person held up a poster that said: “Philippine sovereignty, non-negotiable.”

Japan’s foreign minister Fumio Kishida said the tribunal’s decision is “final and legally binding” and that the two sides should comply with it.

Japan has its own territorial disputes with China over a set of islands in the East China Sea, and has raised concerns over Beijing’s military assertiveness in the regional waters.

He said Japan supports the rule of law and the use of peaceful means, not the use of force or coercion, in seeking settlement of maritime disputes.

Earlier in the day, rival demonstrators tried to drown out one another in a shouting match outside the seat of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

China demarcated its territorial claims with a U-shaped line made up of eleven dashes on a map, covering most of the area. The Communist Party, which took over in 1949, removed the Gulf of Tonkin portion in 1953, erasing two of the dashes to make it a nine-dash line

China took control of disputed Mischief Reef, constructing octagonal huts on stilts that China said will serve as shelters for fishermen. The Philippines lodged a protest through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

China submitted its nine-dash line map to the UN, saying it “has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South VIETNAM Paracel Islands Spratly Islands BRUNEI MALAYSIA

China Sea and the adjacent waters”

The Philippines brought its dispute with China to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, angering Beijing. A fivemember panel of international legal experts was appointed in June to hear the case

The Hague arbitration TAIWAN PHILIPPINES

panel in ruled in October that it had jurisdiction over at least seven of the 15 claims raised by the Philippines

The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that China no historic title over the waters of the South China Sea and that it has breached the sovereign rights of the Philippines.