South China Sea: Manila and Beijing agreed to shelve dispute, ambassador says – despite Duterte’s vow to uphold ruling
- Presidents Xi and Duterte had already reached a ‘consensus’ to ‘put aside’ their competing maritime claims, said Chinese envoy to Manila Huang Xilian
- His comments came just days after Duterte vowed to uphold a 2016 arbitration ruling, and led one retired judge to say the president had been ‘taken for a ride’
Huang Xilian‘s comment at a webinar on bilateral relations on Friday come as several prominent foreign policy commentators continue to urge Duterte to push back against Beijing’s expansive nine-dash line that takes in about 90 per cent of the disputed waterway.
South China Sea: Duterte’s UN speech wins praise, even from critics
In his speech last Tuesday in front of the UN, Duterte said Manila “rejects attempts to undermine” the 2016 award, which he described as “part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon”.
“China’s position on the so-called arbitral ruling has been very clear: we do not accept and we do not recognise [it]. It has been agreed by our two presidents that we should close the old chapter and shelve differences,” he said, without mentioning when such an agreement had been reached.
He further pointed to how the number of new Chinese contracts for projects in the Philippines had increased “26.5 per cent in the first half of the year” – despite the coronavirus pandemic – as evidence of how relations were benefiting both sides.
Locsin responded to the envoy’s comments on Twitter, saying on Saturday that “of course” Beijing does not recognise the arbitral ruling “or we wouldn’t have a dispute. What’s wrong with you people?”
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, in an interview with online news programme Viewpoint on Sunday, said that an agreement had been made to “proceed with matters we can proceed [with] … [including] trade and investments” because the two sides “cannot resolve the pending territorial dispute”.
For retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio, however, this constitutes Duterte being “taken for a ride, setting aside the ruling with nothing to show for it”.
“Duterte put aside the ruling to secure loans and investments from China, but of the promised US$24 billion in loans and investments, less than 5 per cent has materialised with less than two years remaining in Duterte’s term,” he told This Week in Asia on Monday.
“With the pandemic and the slow-down in China’s economy, nothing more can be expected … no tourist arrivals because of the pandemic. Passports of pogo workers are being cancelled by the Chinese government. Duterte cannot expect anything more from China.”
Carpio called on the Philippine president to “assert the ruling on all fronts” as it “remains valid and enforceable”.
Carpio, who was among those who backed the government’s arbitration action, suggested that the Philippines now file an extended continental shelf claim in the West Philippine Sea to enforce the ruling and get the UN General Assembly to put the matter to a vote.
But Roque, who taught constitutional and public international law for 15 years at the University of the Philippines, shot down this suggestion, arguing that “we don’t need to do anything” as the 2016 ruling should already be more than enough to back up the Philippines’ claim, adding that “Carpio has never been an authority in international law”.
South China Sea: Asean states set course for Beijing’s red line
Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank who specialises in Southeast Asian maritime disputes, disagreed with Roque’s assessment however, telling Philippine cable news channel ANC: “If Mauritius can beat London in the UN [over the Chagos Islands], why can’t Manila beat Beijing?”