China refutes Japanese media's South China Sea related reports
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday refuted reports in Japanese media on the South China Sea, saying China is garnering support from more and more countries.
"The Japanese side has been attempting to form factions on the South China Sea issue and defame China. However, we need to listen to the official voice of the Kuwaiti government instead of the Kyodo News Agency," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang.
Lu made the remarks at a regular press briefing, in response to a report by Kyodo on Thursday, which said the prime ministers of Japan and Kuwait agreed that the security environment in East Asia has become increasingly severe because of China's unilateral attempt to alter the status quo in the East and South China seas.
A meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Kuwaiti counterpart Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah was held in Tokyo on Thursday.
Read the full story at Xinhua
--
South China Sea: How we got to this stage
The South China Sea issue has become one of the major irritants in the China-U.S. relations in recent years, over which the public opinion in the two countries is very critical of each other. There are even frictions in the sea between the two navies.
The South China Sea seems like an outlet for the rivalry and confrontation that are building up of late between China and the US. As a result, the two sides seem to be reassessing each other's intentions on a strategic level.
The latest rhetoric is about "militarizing the South China Sea", and on the part of the U.S., announcements to carry out "freedom of navigation operational assertions".
Hawkish voices are growing louder in both sides of the Pacific. Such frictions surrounding the South China Sea are leading to further strategic mistrust and hostility.
The American scholar David M. Lampton was straightforward when he observed worriedly in reference to the existing situation, "A tipping point in the U.S.-China relations is upon us". It is obvious that the South China Sea issue is a major catalyst for the troubled China-U.S. relations, if not the key contributing factor.
Opinions diverge in both countries on what has led to the current situation in the South China Sea. In China, it is widely believed that it is the U.S.'s Asia-Pacific rebalance strategy, its taking sides on disputes in the South China Sea, and its direct intervention that have escalated the tensions and made the issue more complicated.
In the U.S., accusations are strident of China's defiance of international law, coercion of smaller neighbors by force and attempted denial of access to the U.S., in its bid to gradually take control of the South China Sea using a salami-slicing strategy and to eventually turn it into a Chinese lake.
Read the full story at Xinhua
--
Commentary: China's stance on S.C. Sea arbitration is to defend rather than disobey int'l law
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- China's position of neither participating in nor accepting the results of the forceful arbitration initiated by the the Philippines over the disputes in the South China Sea does not mean the country disobeys international law, on the contrary, it's defending it.
The initiation of the arbitration by the Philippines in January 2013 under the UN Convention of the Law of Sea (UNCLOS) is abuse of international law as the initiative does not satisfy the preconditions set in the Convention.
Peacefully resolving international disputes is an important principle in the UNCLOS. Compared to other measures such as negotiation and consultation, compulsory arbitration is a secondary and complementary method. The application of it has to meet at least four preconditions.
First, the crux of the subject matter of the arbitration is the territorial disputes caused by the Philippines' illegal occupation since the 1970s of some islands and reefs in China's Nansha Islands, maritime delimitation disputes, and the evolution of the contemporary law of the sea.
The issue of the territorial disputes is outside the scope of the UNCLOS, thus neither can the Philippines initiate a compulsory arbitration under this convention, nor does the arbitral tribunal in the Hague, the Netherlands, have the jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the case.
Territorial disputes are governed by the UN Charter and general international law, not the UNCLOS.
Read the full story at Xinhua