Beijing rejects arbitration anew as hearing starts

BEIJING – China yesterday reaffirmed that it will “not accept” a judicial arbitration on the South China Sea, as an international court was due to hear a case brought by the Philippines.

Manila has called for the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to rule on the increasingly bitter dispute, appealing to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, putting it in conflict with several neighbors, and is a party to the Convention but has rejected the court’s jurisdiction on the issue.

“Our position is clear: we will not participate in or accept the arbitration,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing.

Beijing has never precisely defined its claims to the strategic waterway, through which about a third of all the world’s traded oil passes.

The waters – claimed in part by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei – have become the stage for a tussle for dominance between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economic and military powers.

Following a stand- off between Chinese ships and the weak Philippine Navy in 2012, China took control of a rich fishing ground called Panatag ( Scarborough) Shoal that is within the Philippines’ claimed exclusive economic zone.

Manila hopes a judgment in its favor will pressure Beijing into making concessions.

China has refused to participate in the proceedings, arguing the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction over the matter.

Beijing has in recent years rapidly built artificial islands, which neighbors fear will be used as military outposts.

In a July hearing in The Hague, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario warned the integrity of UN maritime laws was at stake.

China’s behavior had become increasingly “aggressive” and negotiations had proved futile, del Rosario said. –