Kuala Lumpur, July 11 (AseanAll) — On July 11, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expounded China's position on the South China Sea arbitration case when attending the series of annual foreign ministers' meetings on East Asia cooperation in Kuala Lumpur.
Wang Yi noted that the so-called South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines lacks the necessary precondition of prior full exchange of views and violates the principle of state consent as the foundation for arbitration. Therefore, it did not possess a legal basis to proceed from the outset. The Philippines' move violated the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), which stipulates that disputes should be resolved peacefully through friendly consultations by parties directly concerned. It also ran counter to commitments made by the Philippines in bilateral agreements with China and breached the principle of estoppel under international law.
Wang Yi said that although the arbitration case was presented in various forms, the essence of the Philippine claims concern China's territorial sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and directly involve maritime delimitation. Territorial issues are beyond the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and maritime delimitation was explicitly excluded by the Chinese government through a declaration made in 2006. Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, only the United States has not joined UNCLOS, while the other four, including China, have all made similar declarations of exclusion. The arbitral tribunal exceeded its mandate and abused the UNCLOS dispute settlement mechanism, undermining the international rule of law of the sea and engaging in actions contrary to the very UNCLOS it claimed to uphold.
Wang Yi said that the arbitral tribunal's ruling has serious flaws both in fact-finding and application of law, with numerous errors. In particular, it wrongly classified Taiping Island, the largest feature in the Nansha Islands with an area of 500,000 square meters, as a rock, thereby concluding that no feature in the Nansha Islands could generate an exclusive economic zone or continental shelf. This decision contradicts both the facts on the ground and the provisions of UNCLOS. If such a standard were applied, the global maritime order would be fundamentally altered. The islands and reefs held by countries such as the United States and Japan would likewise lose their basis for asserting maritime rights and interests. Would these countries be willing to give up their claims?
Wang Yi emphasized that it is well known that the initiation of the arbitral tribunal and the subsequent hype were orchestrated and manipulated by forces outside the region, with the aim of destabilizing the South China Sea and seeking their own selfish gains. More and more countries around the world have come to see the nature of this farce. China's position is precisely about upholding the principle of the international rule of law and the authority of UNCLOS. Thanks to the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the situation in the South China Sea remains stable, with freedom of navigation and overflight effectively guaranteed. China is accelerating consultations with ASEAN countries to strive for an early conclusion of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC), and to foster a new narrative of peace, cooperation and friendship in the South China Sea. Any attempts to stir up trouble and sow discord are bound to fail.
