Despite strenuous interference by the Untied States and its proxies, the just concluded ASEAN annual meetings did not incorporate the South China Sea arbitration into its agenda or declaration. In the declaration of the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting, both sides reiterated the need for parties directly involved in the disputes to resolve disagreements through negotiations. The conspiracy of the US and its cronies to hype up the case and contain China was aborted.
In spite of the defeat, the US ganged up with Japan and Australia and issued a joint statement, alluding to China taking a “unilateral” stance, escalating “tensions” in the South China Sea, and urged China to abide by the “legally binding” ruling, trying everything possible to stand facts on their heads.
Meanwhile, US State Secretary John Kerry, while affectedly stating the US takes no position regarding the ruling, which was essentially a US-directed farce, told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China must accept it. But whatever means the US and its cronies resort to, there is no way to reverse the bankruptcy of the illicit “arbitration”, nor to make China accept it.
The “triangle” drama — featuring the US as behind-the-scenes string puller, the Philippine Aquino administration, and an arbitral panel designated by extreme China hater and Shinzo Abe proxy Shunji Yanai – was a political conspiracy and hoax against China. It was a mockery of international law, which had no jurisprudential significance and is legally invalid. It was a farce with no winner. The US, as initiator of the evil, was the biggest loser.
First, while failing to denigrate China, the US has undermined its own reputation and isolated itself. China's merciless exposé of the farce immediately laid bare the illicit nature of the arbitration, the international community and jurisprudential circles thereby distanced themselves from the farce. So far more than 70 countries and organizations have openly expressed understanding of or support for China's position. Only the US and a few of its cronies are taking advantage of the ruling to find fault with China.
Second, its plot to deny China's sovereignty in the South China Sea failed. The ruling, of which the US was the tune-setter, denied legitimacy of China's nine-dash line and tries to invalidate China's inherent sovereignty over South China Sea islands in a wholesale manner, attempting to create a legal basis for some countries' plot to carve up the South China Sea and pave the way for the US to dominate the region. But the arbitral panel's outrageous disregard of the law means its ruling is destined to be invalid. China's resolute refusal has rendered it a useless piece of paper. The international community has ignored it. The new government in Manila has also appeared to be pragmatic, tending to initiate negotiations.
Third, the attempt to “Caribbeanize” the South China Sea ran into stonewall. Showing no respect for common sense and facts, the arbitral panel decided the 500,000-square-meter Taiping Island is not an island, but a “rock”, i.e. there is no island, but only rocks in the South China Sea. The unspoken words were that all countries around the South China Sea, China in particular, only have 12 nautical miles of territorial waters, the rest are international waters. That would fundamentally overthrow the geographical reality in the South China Sea and international law and conventions. Its true intention was to clear the way for US hegemony in the South China Sea and exploitation of local resources. China has demonstrated both its resolution and capabilities for defending its sovereignty. ASEAN, along with China, has explicitly affirmed its commitment to a “dual track” policy, advocating the prevention outside forces from interfering in affairs and disputes in the region. The US attempt to extend its maritime hegemony to the South China Sea can't succeed.
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Starting with an attempt to contain China, the US-directed arbitration has ended up humiliating itself. It might be a little exaggerative for an American media outlet to assert that the miscarriage of the arbitration indicated the US has lost its “commanding ground” in international politics. But its defeat will more or less accelerate the decline of its hegemony.
Facing such a reality, the US should reflect on the case and draw lessons from it. It is good to see the US side has demonstrated a degree of constructiveness regarding China-US relations. The arbitration case has again confirmed the truth that cooperation leads to win-win, and confrontation is a formula of lose-lose.
