by Xinhua Writer Liu Chang
BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- In his first state of the nation address on Monday, newly-inaugurated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made a wrong political judgment over the South China Sea issue by eulogizing the recent illegal and invalid arbitral award against China.
In the address, Duterte hailed the recent South China Sea arbitral award given by the unlawfully established temporary tribunal "a key contribution" to peaceful resolution to maritime disputes between the Philippines and China.
First, the arbitration, a unilateral move launched by President Duterte's predecessor and steadily rejected by China, has become an illegally established barrier for Manila itself to overcome in order to start talks with Beijing to end their island spats.
It also runs against China's constant practice of using the mechanism of bilateral talks among the concerned parties in the region to handle such matters.
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