China snubs sea dipute arbitration

China on Tuesday reaffirmed that it will “not accept” a judicial arbitration on the South China Sea, as an international court was due to hear a case bought by the Philippines.

Manila has called for the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague to rule on the increasingly bitter dispute, appealing to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, putting it in conflict with several neighbours, and is a party to the Convention but has rejected the court’s jurisdiction on the issue.

“Our position is clear: we will not participate to or accept the arbitration,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing.

Beijing has never precisely defined its claims to the strategic waterway, through which about a third of all the world’s traded oil passes.

The waters have become the stage for a tussle for dominance between Beijing and Washington, the world’s two largest economic and military powers. Following a stand-off between Chinese ships and the weak Philippine Navy in 2012, China took control of a rich fishing ground called Scarborough Shoal.