U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has condemned China’s communist regime for continuing to defy a 2016 international arbitration ruling that rejected its sweeping claims in the South China Sea, as well as its increasingly hostile actions against its neighbors.
In a
statement on July 12, which was the ninth anniversary of the
landmark ruling issued by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Rubio called on the Chinese regime to “abide by the 2016 arbitral ruling and to cease its dangerous and destabilizing conduct.”
Rubio said that the ruling, which was a unanimous decision delivered by a five-member panel of the court, is “legally binding on both the Philippines and China” and a “useful basis for peacefully resolving disputes between parties in the South China Sea.”
The 2016 ruling
rejected the Chinese regime’s “nine-dash line” claim to about 85 percent of the South China Sea’s 2.2 million square miles, saying that Beijing’s assertion was inconsistent with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“Since the 2016 ruling, China has ignored the decision, continuing to assert unlawful and expansive maritime claims and taking increasingly aggressive actions against its neighbors,” Rubio said.
“Beijing’s expansive claims directly infringe on the sovereign rights and jurisdictions of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, and undermine peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
Rubio said that the United States “supports a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
“We seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, maintain the free flow of trade, and oppose coercion to settle maritime disputes,” he stated.
In recent years, the Philippines has borne the brunt of the Chinese regime’s aggression in the South China Sea. In 2024, Manila
criticized Beijing for ramming its boats, spraying its vessels with water cannons, and
firing flares at its aircraft, with most of the
incidents occurring around the contested Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea.
The most recent incident happened on July 12, when a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ship and a Chinese coast guard (CGC) vessel operated within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off Cabra Island in Occidental Mindoro, according to a
post on social media platform X by Philippine coast guard (PCG) spokesperson Jay Tarriela. When contacted by radio from a PCG vessel, the Chinese navy ship did not respond, and the CGC vessel asserted “China’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over these waters,” Tarriela said.
“The PCG reminds the PLA Navy and the CCG to give due regard to the jurisdiction of the Philippines in its EEZ, answer the radio communications from the PCG, and desist from the conduct of unauthorized patrols or law enforcement-related activities in the Philippine EEZ,” Tarriela said.
The Philippines
initiated arbitration proceedings against China in 2013, resulting in the 2016 ruling.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, in a
statement commenting on the anniversary, said the landmark ruling “will continue to be a cornerstone of Philippine maritime policy and the country’s unflinching advocacy for a rules-based order governed by international law.”
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro called the Chinese regime’s continued rejection of the ruling “worrisome” in a recorded message for a local forum on July 11,
according to the government-run Philippine News Agency.
Lazaro also criticized Beijing for conducting aggressive actions in the disputed sea under the cover of a “revisionist, self-serving interpretation” of international law, particularly UNCLOS, according to the outlet.
In response, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry on July 12 called the 2016 ruling “a piece of waste paper that is illegal, null and void, and non-binding.”
“Japan reaffirms that there is no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea,” Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said in a
statement.
He said that Beijing’s refusal to accept the ruling “undermines the rule of law in the international community.”
“China’s coercive and dangerous actions against Philippine and Vietnamese vessels—including the use of water cannons, dangerous maneuvers, ramming, forcible towing, and the unlawful boarding of vessels—endanger the safety of seafarers and seriously degrade regional peace and security,” Global Affairs Canada, which represents the Foreign Ministry and the Trade Ministry, said in a
statement.
“Canada continues to call on China to abide by the tribunal’s decision and cease all actions that escalate tensions and threaten maritime safety.”
