China has dismissed claims made in a report released by the United States (US) Department of State, which examined the legal basis of Beijing’s maritime claims.
During his regular press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that the US misrepresented international law “to mislead the public, confuse right with wrong and upset the regional situation.”
Wang asserted that “as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), China [...] earnestly observes the Convention in a rigid and responsible manner.” He criticised the US for refusing to join the Convention, and yet continue to “style itself as a judge.” Wang warned that “such political manipulation is irresponsible and undermines international rule of law.”
Echoing China’s previous policy on the issue, Wang reiterated that “China enjoys historic rights in the South China Sea.” “Our sovereignty and relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea are established in the long course of history and are in line with the UN Charter, UNCLOS and other international law,” he declared.
.@StateDept’s latest study on the PRC's maritime claims in the South China Sea concludes that the claims are inconsistent with international law. We call on the PRC to conform its claims to international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention. https://t.co/ZPSyRqwuxw
— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) January 12, 2022
Wang further countered that “the situation of the South China Sea is generally stable” and that the US, which is “a country outside the region, has frequently made provocations in the South China Sea, and driven wedges among regional countries.”
In July 2016, an Arbitral Tribunal instituted under Annex VII of the 1982 UNCLOS had issued a binding ruling on China’s claims against the Philippines in the South China Sea. The panel ruled that China’s claims of “historic” rights within the nine-dash line, which Beijing uses to outline its claims in the disputed South China Sea, were without legal foundation.
However, Wang refuted the rulings of the tribunal on Thursday, saying that the Tribunal “violated the principle of state consent, exercised its jurisdiction ultra vires and rendered an award in disregard of the law. It gravely violates UNCLOS and general international law. The award is illegal, null and void. China does not accept or recognise it.”
The spokesperson’s criticism comes after the US Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs released a study on Beijing’s maritime claims in the South China Sea, titled “Limits in the Seas.” The report examines longstanding “national maritime claims and boundaries and assesses their consistency with international law.”
The 47-page report concludes that China’s “ambiguous 'dashed-line' claim in the South China Sea,” which is a wide swath of the water body that Beijing claims to be part of its internal waters and outlying archipelagos, “are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.”
Through the study, the State Department said that the US has called on China once again, “to conform its maritime claims to international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, to comply with the decision of the arbitral tribunal in its award of July 12, 2016, in the South China Sea Arbitration, and to cease its unlawful and coercive activities in the South China Sea.”