This week’s binding decision from the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, Netherlands, dealt a serious blow to China’s claim to most of the South China Sea, a 1.4 million-square-mile body of water that contains the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The ruling was rejected immediately by the Chinese Foreign Ministry — as expected — […]

The stronger China gets, the more important is the question of whether it will be a world power that wields its strength responsibly. Yesterday’s ruling against China by a United Nations arbitration tribunal brings this question into sharp focus. Beijing boycotted the proceedings, and has rejected the decision. By chance, the EU-China summit began the […]

WASHINGTON: Leading legislators from both parties welcomed today’s UN tribunal ruling against Chinese claims in the South China Sea. But while Republicans focused on China’s misdeeds, Democrats consistently brought up an American omission: The United States has never ratified the very treaty empowering the tribunal to stand up China, the UN Convention on the Law […]

WASHINGTON: Leading legislators from both parties welcomed today’s UN tribunal ruling against Chinese claims in the South China Sea. But while Republicans focused on China’s misdeeds, Democrats consistently brought up an American omission: The United States has never ratified the very treaty empowering the tribunal to stand up China, the UN Convention on the Law […]

Chinese citizens have reacted swiftly and angrily to a ruling this week that China’s claim to most of the South China Sea is illegal. Patriotic netizens have called for war against the Philippines, a boycott of the country’s products, and created a somewhat racist cartoon to mock Filipinos. They’re jumping the Great Firewall to spit […]

The Philippine Ambassadors Foundation Inc. (PAFI) has hailed the ruling of the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration on the Philippines’ case against China over disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). “It [UN arbitral tribunal] has awarded the Philippines a sweeping victory on all the significant points raised by [the country] to […]

On Tuesday, an international tribunal in The Netherlands issued a ruling on the Philippines’ case against the People’s Republic of China. The decision was a resounding success considering that the major points raised by our country were resolved in its favor, such as: 1) The nine-dash line map being used by the PRC to bully […]

The Spratly Islands are henceforth no longer islands, but demoted to lowly rocks and low-tide features. That is one of the far-reaching implications from this week’s portentous ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) tribunal, on the dispute brought by the Philippines against China in the South China Sea. No judgment was made about […]