China isn't seeking to limit freedom of navigation in South China Sea

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement this month on the freedom of navigation in the so-called "West Philippine Sea". It said that "the freedom of navigation is a customary right under international law" and "its existence does not depend solely on the will or assurance of one or any individual state".

The department noted that "no state can arrogate unto itself the unilateral right to determine or assure the existence or non-existence of the freedom of navigation in the West Philippine Sea". Rather, it said, "the freedom of navigation is an established right … as a matter of international obligation".

It is true that freedom of navigation is a right under international law rather than a privilege endowed by any individual state. The flaw in the statement is that readers have to spend a few seconds to realise that the "West Philippine Sea" is actually a term recently coined by the Philippines in an attempt to replace the "South China Sea", a name which has been used globally for centuries.

The statement contained yet more errors.

Referring to a recent statement by China which said that "the freedom and safety of navigation in the South China Sea is assured", the Philippines made the assumption that China is "making it appear that it is the sole guarantor of freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea. Then the department very comfortably blamed China for creating a "cause of serious concern".

One may need a top English linguist to determine whether such an assumption could be extracted from the Chinese statement, on the condition that what the department got was the faithful English translation of what China had said.

We can make the job easier by looking for a more authoritative version of China's announcements on the subject.