Since the ruling of the South China Sea arbitration, the Philippines has sought to legitimize the award through domestic legislation, while Western countries manipulate international opinion to give the unlawful ruling a veneer of legitimacy. The Philippines has also continued to collude with the West on issues such as the delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, maritime law enforcement, and resource development, challenging China’s legal claims.

Over the past nine years, China has consistently criticized the illegality of the ruling from a legal perspective, while resolutely exercising sovereignty and jurisdiction through maritime rights protection and law enforcement measures, defending its legitimate rights and interests in the South China Sea in a just, powerful, and measured manner.

In response to the erroneous analysis and wrongful judgment of the arbitration, China has firmly countered the ruling with legal reasoning. In both 2018 and 2024, China issued documents criticizing the South China Sea arbitration ruling, clearly pointing out the legal errors of the tribunal and the award itself. The tribunal’s composition lacked representation and was purely the result of political manipulation, and the professional ethics of the arbitrators have been widely criticized. In order to establish jurisdiction, the ruling arbitrarily separated territorial sovereignty disputes from maritime rights disputes, which was a clear case of exceeding jurisdiction. The tribunal was biased towards the Philippines on many procedural issues, adopting a one-sided and partial approach that hindered the parties from further resolving their disputes. In order to meet the conditions for filing a case, the Philippines did not submit the most critical and urgent disputes between China and the Philippines for arbitration, instead fabricating a dispute on the interpretation and application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The tribunal’s attempt to completely negate China’s legitimate rights by misinterpreting international law was purely an unjust ruling for selfish interests.

China has firmly countered the Philippines’ abuse of the arbitration award in creating regional tensions. For the past nine years, the Philippines has continuously created regional friction under the pretext of enforcing the unlawful arbitration award, but all such attempts have been strongly countered by China’s law enforcement forces. In response to the Philippines’ actions on reefs such as Ren’ai Jiao, Huangyan Dao, Xianbin Jiao, Houteng Jiao, Banyue Jiao, and Jianzhang Jiao, China has effectively exercised its jurisdictional law enforcement authority in its waters, addressing illegal provocations by Philippine government vessels, law enforcement ships, and civilian ships. While the Philippines has actively enlisted external countries to strengthen its maritime law enforcement, China has already established a regular law enforcement presence in the waters near certain South China Sea reefs, with both the tonnage of its ships and law enforcement capabilities far exceeding those of the Philippines. Since the Philippines intends to implement this award, China is fully capable of using the law enforcement authority granted by UNCLOS to directly prove the illegality and invalidity of the award. Through concrete actions, China has made it clear that it neither recognizes nor will it implement this award.

Facing malicious smears by the Philippines in collusion with a few external countries against China’s legitimate rights protection activities in the South China Sea, China’s countermeasures in public opinion have been firm and measured. Since 2024, China has issued ecological reports on Ren’ai Jiao, Xianbin Jiao, Tiexian Jiao, and Niu’e Jiao, demonstrating China’s proactive fulfillment of its environmental protection obligations in the South China Sea while exposing the Philippines’ unlawful actions that damage the ecological environment of the reefs. Meanwhile, China and ASEAN have strengthened cooperation on marine environmental protection through multidimensional, pragmatic collaboration, continuously improving the capacity for marine environmental protection with neighboring South China Sea countries, enriching international cooperation on the management and preservation of South China Sea ecological resources. Apart from the Philippines, China has achieved tangible results in environmental protection in the South China Sea with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. These efforts have become a stabilizing force for overall peace in the South China Sea region.

Regarding the unlawful arbitration award, China has taken a just, powerful, and measured response to effectively safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea based on international law. This not only clarifies to neighboring countries who is the active builder of peace and stability in the South China Sea but also exposes who the true culprit is in exacerbating the security situation in the region. In the long term, it is clear that abandoning the blind belief in the South China Sea arbitration ruling and resolving the issue through consultation and negotiation is the fundamental way to achieve regional security and stability.

(Author: Xu Qi, Vice Dean of the Institute for Foreign-related Rule of Law Studies, Law School, Jinan University)