Beijing reasserts claims over South China Sea

Beijing insists that it has sovereignty over the South China Sea, defying an international tribunal ruling

BEIJING: Beijing insisted Wednesday that it had sovereignty over the South China Sea, defying an international tribunal ruling that its claims to a vast swathe of the waters had no legal basis.

China was "the first to have discovered, named, and explored and exploited" the islands of the South China Sea islands and their waters, and had "continuously, peacefully and effectively exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over them", Beijing said in a white paper on settling disputes with the Philippines, which brought the case in The Hague.



Beijing's claims to the waters -- extending almost to the coasts of other littoral states -- are enshrined in a "nine-dash line" that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s.

China had "never ceased carrying out activities such as patrolling and law enforcement, resources development and scientific survey" on the islands and in "relevant waters".

The white paper says that China says it wants to settle the disputes "on the basis of respecting historical facts".

But the document was in direct contradiction to the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Tuesday, which said that "there was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or their resources".

The UN-backed tribunal also said that any "historic rights" to resources in the waters of the South China Sea were "extinguished" when China signed up to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).



As such, it said there was "no legal basis" for China to claim historic rights to resources within the nine-dash line.

China had no possible entitlement to areas within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, it added.

Beijing boycotted the PCA proceedings, saying it had no jurisdiction to rule on the issues, and has mounted a huge diplomatic and publicity drive to try to discredit the tribunal and its decision.