China’s ambassador to US issues rebuke over South China Sea arbitration

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China's ambassador to US issues rebuke over South China Sea arbitration

More than three years after the Permanent Court of Arbitration took up a case pitting China against the Philippines over features in the South China Sea, the five judge panel has handed down its result.

CCTV America’s Jessica Stone reports.

In Washington, China’s ambassador to the United States issued a forceful rebuttal to the Permanent Court of Arbitration result issued Tuesday.

“We will not yield to any pressure, be it in the form of military activities, media criticism or some self-claimed legal bodies,” Cui Tiankai, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. said.

The remarks come after the five-judge panel determined that Beijing’s historic rights to resources in the South China Sea were invalid.

The court also determined that China’s island building efforts in the South China Sea violate the Philippines sovereign rights and caused permanent harm to the ecosystem in the Nansha, or Spratly, islands.

Manila filed the case in January 2013, accusing Beijing of violating the Philippines sovereign rights to land and water in the Nansha.

China never participated in the arguments, only offering a 12 page white paper outlining its long-standing claims to the Nansha, Xisha, and other island groups in the region.

Ultimately the court made its determination, not according to historical rights, but according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China and the Philippines have both ratified.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF HIS SPEECH HERE


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