China’s Foreign Ministry rejected renewed international claims tied to the South China Sea arbitration award on Sunday. The statement came exactly ten years after the tribunal first issued its controversial ruling. Fourteen countries, including the United States, Japan and Australia, had jointly reaffirmed the decision days earlier.
Beijing firmly reiterated that it neither accepts nor recognizes the arbitration outcome under any circumstances. According to the ministry, China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea islands remains historically and legally established. Furthermore, officials stressed that this sovereignty extends across internal waters, territorial seas and exclusive economic zones.
The joint statement, led largely by Washington and its allies, criticized destabilizing actions threatening regional maritime stability. However, Chinese officials countered that only 14 of 193 United Nations member states endorsed the statement. Consequently, Yang Xiao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called this limited support telling.
Yang argued that genuine support for the ruling should come from regional Asian nations rather than distant allies. Notably, neither ASEAN countries nor most Asian nations joined the coordinated diplomatic statement. Therefore, he suggested political motivations, rather than legal principles, drove the coalition’s actions.
Beijing reserved particular criticism for Japan after its foreign minister publicly endorsed the arbitration ruling. Chinese officials argued that Japan’s own island claims would collapse under similar legal reasoning. Specifically, they compared Japan’s Okinotori rocks to Taiping Dao, which the tribunal excluded from island status.
Subsequently, China’s Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Japanese embassy official to lodge formal protests. Officials expressed strong dissatisfaction over Tokyo’s participation in what Beijing called coordinated diplomatic provocation. Additionally, the ministry emphasized that freedom of navigation has never faced genuine disruption in the region.
Moving forward, Beijing insists it will resolve territorial disputes exclusively through direct negotiation rather than external arbitration. As tensions persist, the South China Sea remains a focal point for competing regional and international interests.
