On tenth anniversary, China sprays invective over South China Sea ruling

Hong Kong : The tenth anniversary of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s (PCA) unanimous ruling against Chinese claims in the South China Sea occurred on 12 July. In the lead-up to the anniversary, Beijing and its various organs ramped up their vitriol against the Philippines, which had taken this case to the international tribunal.
To commemorate the occasion, 14 countries signed a joint statement reaffirming their “unwavering commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific that is peaceful, stable and rules-based, anchored in international law”.
These nations were Australia, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, the UK and the USA. Additionally, the 27-member EU issued a separate statement backing the decision.
The parties reminded China of its duties under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), describing the award in Manila’s favour as “final, legally binding and definitive”. They reaffirmed “there is no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea, including those based on ‘historic rights'”.
For its part, China continued to disparage and ridicule the PCA’s ruling, even though it is a UNCLOS signatory. Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, commented, “The ‘arbitration’ is, from beginning to end, a political farce masqueraded as a legal process, and the so-called award carries no legal force in any sense. The Chinese side does not accept nor recognise the award.”
In a similar fashion, a 17 July editorial by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) accused the Philippines of “smearing” China and rallying international supporters. The author, Li Weichao, said, “Lies repeated a thousand times are still lies. And illegality will not become legality with the passage of time.”
Ironically, this is precisely China’s approach. It claims its maritime sovereignty in the South China Sea is “firmly grounded in history and international law”. It believes if it continuously smears the PCA ruling, if it makes regular outlandish claims to sovereignty, and if it ignores a legally binding process, that it will somehow reverse international thinking.
Li bristled: “The decade-long farce must come to an end. The so-called South China Sea arbitral award is illegal, null and void – nothing but a worthless piece of paper. No amount of hype by the Philippines can change that fact.”
China claims it has “remained committed to resolving disputes peacefully through dialogue and consultation with the countries directly concerned,” an argument belied by its reckless behaviour in the South China Sea. To give one example of how China has upped its aggression, a confrontation during a resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in June 2024 resulted in a Philippine sailor losing a thumb. At that time, China Coast Guard (CCG) personnel boarded and damaged Philippine inflatable boats.
China also deploys large coast guard cutters and warships to assert illegal claims and challenge Philippine operations. For example, whilst attempting to harass a smaller Philippine vessel near Scarborough Shoal on 11 August 2025, a CCG cutter collided with the PLA’s Type 052D destroyer Guilin.
In the latest incident, on 20 July, CCG personnel in a motor boat attacked Philippine Navy personnel in an inflatable with wooden sticks. This occurred at Second Thomas Shoal, where the Philippines maintains a garrison aboard a beached vessel.
In response to such Chinese violence, the 14 nations reminded China of their “strong opposition to the use of coast guard, military and maritime militia forces to harass, obstruct or intimidate lawful operations by other states at sea or in the air, and in so doing endanger the safety of personnel and fishermen and seriously degrade regional peace and security.”
Not satisfied with vilifying the Philippines, China has now made further preposterous claims about its maritime territory. Doubtlessly sanctioned by the Chinese government, an academic symposium in Guangzhou proclaimed on 30 June that China has legal jurisdiction over the Philippines-owned Batanes Islands in the Luzon Strait between the northern Philippines and southern Taiwan.
According to one Chinese news report, “Participants unanimously concluded that the Batanes Islands constitute a natural geographical extension of Taiwan, with sovereignty belonging to China…” This bizarre declaration was denounced by Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. as “ludicrous”.
Writing for the Lowy Institute in Australia, the Philippines-based lecturer Vincent Kyle Parada noted an ulterior motive for China’s ridiculous claim. “It is not suggested that Beijing is interested in ‘reintegrating’ the Batanes Islands as part of Chinese territory, as it is with Taiwan. However, while China’s foreign ministry has yet to officially endorse the new claims, their supposed origin in scholarly debate and legal rumination – questionable as they are – provides Beijing with the pretext necessary to move against Tokyo and Manila and, more importantly, isolate Taiwan.”
The Batanes Islands are critical to US-Philippine efforts to “contain” China in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. The Luzon Strait is a chokepoint limiting Chinese access to the Western Pacific. Indeed, defending these islands had a key role in the multinational Exercise Balikatan in April-May.
Parada also noted: “Manila would do well to remember that the ‘historic rights’ that form the basis of Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea can be traced as recently as the 20th century. They began the same way – in a room full of academics, huddled over maps, who judged themselves patriots and arbiters of the national truth. Yet, ten years after the landmark legal victory for the Philippines against China’s claims on the South China Sea, the doubt laid by China continues to proliferate.”