China Ready To Tackle Sea Row With ASEAN Despite Losing Case

China is ready to work with Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations to speed up consultation for a South China Sea (SCS) code of conduct, Xinhua reported, citing Premier Li Qiang, Anuradha Raghu reported for Bloomberg News.

Photo Insert: China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been working for 20 years to establish a code of conduct over SCS, which China wants to possess despite not having any historical document to back up its claim.

Beijing is ready to collaborate to maintain peace and stability of the area, Li said during a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Saturday.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been working for 20 years to establish a code of conduct over SCS, which China wants to possess despite not having any historical document to back up its claim.

China has claimed underwater features in the SCS as its own and argued sovereign rights over these features, eliciting laughter from scholars, even its own, since underwater features cannot have their own territories.

China asserts rights to more than 80% of the South China Sea based on a 1947 map drawn by Kuomintang oceanographers showing vague markings that have since become known as the “nine-dash line.”

China also lost to the Philippines at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague that ruled China has no right to Panatag Shoal in a landmark decision in July 2016.

China, a signatory to UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) has dismissed the decision as a “mere scrap of paper” the way its 1997 treaty with UK to maintain Hong Kong’s political system for 50 years was also a “mere scrap of paper.”

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