Hoang Thi HaandIan Storey

Opinion | A missed chance in the South China Sea has come back to haunt Asean

Hoang Thi Ha and Ian Storey examine the (dis)connect between the Asean-China Code of Conduct negotiations and the arbitration ruling

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China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier is accompanied by navy frigates and submarines during exercises in the South China Sea. Photo: AP

Hoang Thi HaandIan Storey

Published: 10:00am, 15 Jul 2020Updated: 2:18pm, 21 Jul 2020

Why did the Philippines launch a bold and unprecedented legal challenge against China’s jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea in 2013?

According to a leading member of the Philippines’ legal team who spoke with the authors while the case was under way, above all Manila sought a definitive legal judgment on the rights of coastal states within their exclusive economic zones and the legality of China’s nine-dash line as well as its so-called historic rights within that line.

When the arbitral tribunal handed down its verdict on July 12, 2016, the Filipino legal team received everything they had set out to achieve. The ruling declared that the nine-dash line was incompatible with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), that Beijing’s claims to “historic rights” had been extinguished when it ratified the agreement, and that China’s activities in the sea had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone.

The team’s euphoria was, however, all too short-lived.

Not only did China reject the ruling but the newly minted administration of Rodrigo Duterte chose to shelve it in the hope of improving economic ties with China.

02:19

Philippine President Duterte admits being at a loss getting Beijing to honour South China Sea ruling

Asean itself barely acknowledged the award, thereby missing a historic opportunity to mount a robust principled position in support of the maritime rules-based order in Southeast Asia.