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PH applauds the United States’ report reaffirming the 2016 arbitral award.

The Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), expressed its satisfaction on Friday with the United States’ reaffirmation of the 2016 Arbitral Award in a study released last week.

“We applaud the United States State Department’s support of the 2016 Arbitral Award in Limits in the Seas No. 150: People’s Republic of China: Maritime Claims in the South China Sea,” the DFA said in a statement.

According to the 47-page State Department report, Beijing’s maritime claims in the South China Sea “gravely undermine the rule of law in the oceans and numerous universally recognized provisions of international law” reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, “especially considering their expansive geographic and substantive scope” (UNCLOS).

China’s claims to sovereignty over maritime features that do not match the international law definition of an “island” and fall wholly outside of a recognized territorial sea, it claimed, are one example.

“Any claim to sovereignty over fully submerged features such as James Shoal, Vanguard Bank, and Macclesfield Bank falls under this category. It also covers any claim to sovereignty over low-tide elevations like Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal, which are completely outside of a valid territorial sea right and are not subject to appropriation under international law “According to the report,

China’s “historic rights claims” in the area are also “plainly incongruous” with international law, according to the report.

“The United States and many other countries objected to the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) historic rights claim, which was rejected by the tribunal in the South China Sea Arbitration,” it stated.

“The aggregate consequence of these maritime claims is that the PRC claims unlawful sovereignty or some form of exclusive jurisdiction over the vast majority of the South China Sea,” it continued.

The DFA stated that Washington D.C.’s reaffirmation is in line with the Joint Vision Statement made by the Philippines and the United States in November 2021, which includes the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) judgment, which is termed as “legally obligatory” on both Manila and Beijing.

Under its so-called “historic rights,” Beijing continues to claim over 80% of the resource-rich South China Sea.

In a 2016 ruling, the Hague-based PCA stated that Chinese navigators and fishermen, as well as those from other countries, have traditionally used the islands in the South China Sea, but that there was no proof that China had held exclusive control over the waterways or their resources.

The Tribunal eventually determined that China had no legal basis for claiming ancient rights to resources within its “nine-dash line” of marine zones.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry declared last week that Beijing retains its position in the disputed waters, calling the landmark judgment “illegal, null, and meaningless.”

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