The Hague-based arbitration court issued on Tuesday an ill-founded award on an arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines against China regarding their dispute in the South China Sea. The Chinese government officials and overseas experts have voiced their disapproval of the court's verdict.
Xi Jinping, Chinese President
-- China will not accept any proposition or action based on the award. The South China Sea Islands have been China's territory since ancient times. China's territorial sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea, in any circumstances, will not be affected by the award.
Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister
-- The arbitration is a political farce under the pretext of law.
Spokesman of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry
-- Pakistan opposes any imposition of unilateral will on others, and respects China's statement of optional exception in light of Article 298 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Countries outside the region should fully respect efforts made by China and the ASEAN countries to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, and play a constructive role to this end.
Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore
-- The arbitration, initiated by the Philippines against China, is a political issue manipulated by the United States, which demands political solutions, instead of the employment of the law.
Satur Ocampo, a former member of the Philippine House of Representatives
-- The Aquino government should not initiate an arbitration case on the disputed South China Sea to the arbitral tribunal. If a conflict arises between China and the Philippines, it would provide the United States with the excuses they need in interfering in the regional affairs.
Saeed al-Lawindi, a political researcher and expert of international relations at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies
-- I believe that the ruling issued today is completely biased and it might in some way or another stir up serious conflict in the region.
What is happening now is a kind of cold war, directly between China and the Philippines and indirectly between the United States and both China and Russia.
Mahmoud Allam, former Egyptian ambassador to China
-- International arbitration is one of the mechanisms used for settling disputes as stated by the United Nations charter, but this mechanism must meet several conditions, otherwise it would be null and void.
Accordingly, it is obvious that the Philippines' unilateral resort to arbitration regarding the South China Sea issue without the approval of the other party, which is China ... makes the arbitration itself null and void in form.
