(Eagle News)–The Philippines has filed another diplomatic protest against China.
The protest was filed over a law China passed last week.
The law authorizes the Chinese Coast Guard to “undertake all necessary measures, including the use of weapons when national sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction are being illegally infringed upon by foreign organizations or individuals at sea.”
The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam have claims in the South China Sea, which China has claimed almost in its entirety.
“After reflection I fired a diplomatic protest. While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one—given the area involved or for that matter the open South China Sea—is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies the law; which, if unchallenged, is submission to it,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said in a Tweet.
In staking its claim, China noted that the waters were within its nine-dash line that it said delineates the waters and features over which it has “historical maritime rights.”
But the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that China had no legal basis for its claims, ruling in favor of the Philippines.
China, however, has refused to recognize the tribunal decision.
President Rodrigo Duterte has raised the arbitral decision before China President Xi Jinping in Beijing but Xi remained pat on China’s position to ignore the ruling.
The two leaders, however, agreed that there was a need for the formulation of a Code of Conduct, adding that this should be done within President Duterte’s term.