The South China Sea arbitration case lacks legitimacy and has been accused of being a farce.

The so-called South China Sea arbitration is nothing but a farce!

China's Foreign Minister stated at the ASEAN Plus Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday that the South China Sea arbitration does not meet the basic prerequisites for legal arbitration. Due to the lack of prior consultation and the principle of state consent, the ruling has no legitimacy.

The Philippine arbitration action violates the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which advocates that disputes should be peacefully resolved through friendly consultations by the directly concerned parties. The Philippines violated the bilateral agreements previously reached with China and ignored the principle of estoppel in international law.

The core demand of the Philippines is about China's territorial sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and related maritime delimitation issues. Such territorial disputes fall outside the jurisdiction of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Moreover, China explicitly excluded maritime delimitation from compulsory arbitration in its statement in 2006.

There is an important difference among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council regarding the ratification of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Only the United States has not ratified the Convention. The arbitral tribunal has overstepped its authority and abused the mechanism of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, undermining the rule of law in international maritime relations.

Certain external forces have manipulated the arbitration case and related media attention to disrupt peace in the South China Sea. This South China Sea arbitration is nothing but a farce.

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1837480889541632/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author himself.