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Allies urged to use US report to help refute Beijing’s South China Sea claims
- Washington repeats its stance that it will not accept any of China’s territorial declarations about the resource-rich region
- ‘This study is a very important basis on which friends and allies can draw to push back on the claims,’ says US State Department official
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Robert Delaneyin Washington
The US government said on Monday that its recent report dismissing China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea was meant, in part, to help more countries challenge Beijing on this front, and that Washington would not accept any of the claims.
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The US State Department’s report, the latest in a series titled “Limits in the Seas”, includes an examination of Beijing’s response to the 2016 ruling by an international tribunal in The Hague, which included a declaration that the determination was “null and void”. The previous edition was published in 2014.
The ruling said that China had no “historic rights” in the South China Sea and that some of the rocky outcrops claimed by several countries could not legally be used as the basis for territorial claims.
“This study is a very important basis on which friends and allies can draw to push back on the claims,” said Constance Arvis, acting deputy assistant secretary for oceans, fisheries and polar affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
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Explained: the history of China’s territorial disputes
Explained: the history of China’s territorial disputes
“We do hope that this is part of an ongoing push by nations who are conforming to regular international practice to push back on the [Chinese government’s] illegal maritime claims,” she said.
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Arvis added that the effort was done to help additional countries, outside of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), publicly rebuke Beijing for its defiance of the tribunal’s ruling.
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