War of words between China and Philippines over South China Sea claims

BANGKOK (AP) — China on Wednesday accused the Philippines of “stirring up trouble” after harsh words from Philippines Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro Jr. over Beijing’s increasingly aggressive pursuit of maritime claims in the South China Sea.

Teodoro was addressing a defense forum in South Korea on Tuesday, stressing the need to uphold a 2016 ruling by an arbitration panel that China’s claims had no legal basis, when a person came on stage and handed him a note that Teodoro said came from China.

Reading from the note, the minister said it said “China neither accepts nor recognizes” the arbitration ruling. “Of course,” he added, looking up to the audience, “because you lost.”

“Have a little bit of decency, have a little bit of shame,” Teodoro continued, saying that the note represented disrespect both for the forum and international law.

Chinese representatives took part in the Seoul Defense Dialogue forum but were not featured as panelists or speakers. It was not clear who the note came from.

Asked in Beijing about the unusual incident, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she was not familiar with the “specific situation” but added that “China’s position on the South China Sea arbitration case has been clear and consistent.”

“We urge the relevant people in the Philippines to stop seeking attention and stirring up trouble and to cease undermining China-Philippines relations and stability in the South China Sea,” Mao told reporters in Beijing after recapitulating the official position.

China refused to join the arbitration initiated by the Philippines in 2013 after a tense standoff in the contested waters a year earlier that ended with Beijing effectively seizing a disputed shoal.

A tribunal established in The Hague under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ruled in 2016 that China’s claims in the South China Sea are illegal. China rejected that and continues to defend its claims to virtually the entire sea passage, a key global trade route that is considered one of Asia’s most active flashpoints.

In July, the U.S., Britain, and a dozen other Western and Asian countries issued a joint statement reasserting that China’s claims in the South China Sea were illegal based upon the ruling issued a decade earlier.

The area has been the scene of repeated territorial standoffs involving China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

In one of the latest incidents, the Philippine military in July accused China’s coast guard of injuring a Filipino sailor at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

The military said Chinese coast guard personnel aboard a motorboat repeatedly struck the sailor on the head with a wooden baton, injuring him and damaging his smaller vessel. China said two rubber boats belonging to an “illegally” stationed Filipino vessel had rammed the Chinese boat.

“This is not gray zone anymore, this is actual coercion, bullying and aggression,” Teodoro told the South Korean defense forum.

“I will keep this paper as a memento of how desperate China is and how ineffective its position is in the face of a free audience,” he said.

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Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this story from Seoul, South Korea.