So-called "South China Sea Arbitration Award" fuels unilateral actions of claimant states: expert

The so-called "South China Sea Arbitration Award" has encouraged unilateral actions by countries such as the Philippines to push for territorial expansion in the sea, and undermined efforts for dialogue and consultation, a Chinese expert said.

Since the 1970s, the Philippines has repeatedly shown expansionist intentions, using constitutional amendments, decrees and statements to assert sovereignty over parts of the Nansha Qundao and Huangyan Dao.

For the past 10 years, the "award" has not only failed to resolve the maritime disputes between China and the Philippines, but instead has become a tool for the Philippines to expand its territorial and maritime claims, exacerbated tensions in the region and provided a pretext for external forces to intervene and destabilize the South China Sea, said the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Sunday.

"It not just facilitates some of the claimant states to conduct unilateral actions in the region. It also poisoned the atmosphere for dialogue and consultation. It's a real pity," said Yan Yan, director of the Research Center of Oceans Law and Policy at the National Institute for the South China Sea Studies.

Shen Hao, a professor at the School of Journalism at the Communication University of China, said the South China Sea holds major strategic and geopolitical importance for China, as substantial international trade, shipping and strategic resources pass through the area and the Malacca Strait.

"Rebuilding this maritime route, particularly the joint development with surrounding countries, has actually been what we have advocated for," Shen said.

To pursue common development, China has launched multiple projects with countries in the region, such as Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park. Yan told China Global Television Network (CGTN) that these projects are good news resources for Chinese media coverage to counter the misleading information from the Western media.

"I think that you should explore more of these stories. You see, countries' maritime policy differs greatly from one to another. So, we focus more on cooperation on those projects in terms of the Philippines. The Philippines is very ambitious now, and they wanted to change the status quo. But I don't think that will be a very big problem because China currently has the capability to maintain peace and stability in the region," Yan told CGTN.

"And I don't think that large-scale incidents or conflicts will happen in the foreseeable future. The Western media always like selectively reporting all those incidents in the South China Sea, and they want to simplify this very complex historic and legal dispute in the South China Sea to a 'binary great nation versus small country theory'," she added.

So-called "South China Sea Arbitration Award" fuels unilateral actions of claimant states: expert

Rally participants gathered in the Japanese capital on Aug 9, which also marked the 81st anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, to voice strong opposition to the government's push to boost defense spending and revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the national Constitution.

Holding anti-war placards, chanting anti-war slogans, protesters warned that remilitarizing the nation would betray its pacifist ideals and endanger future generations.

"Defense spending keeps increasing. Based on Article 9 of the Constitution, Japan pledged never to wage war again, yet it keeps strengthening its military. I find this extremely dangerous. They are also trying to revise Article 9. So I believe that for the sake of future young people and children, Article 9 must never be revised. Japan decided never to repeat the mistakes of waging a war after its defeat in WWII. I think we should continue to safeguard that commitment," said a rally participant.

For many in the crowd, the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains a powerful moral compass as they believe that militarization offers no path forward for a nation that knows the devastation of war firsthand.

"Japan is the only country in the world to have suffered atomic bombings. Yet now Japan is going to deploy missiles. I believe Japan must never possess nuclear weapons," said another rally participant.

"I believe Japan has no future if it goes down the path of militarization. Nuclear weapons are absolutely bad for Japan," said a third woman, also a rally participant.

Beyond moral objections, some demonstrators said that Japan's economic vulnerabilities articulate that saber-rattling is a luxury the country cannot afford.

"I can't help but wonder what on earth a country with only a 36 percent food self-sufficiency rate would be fighting with. I have always been opposed to war, and I'm deeply dissatisfied with what the Takaichi administration is doing now," said another rally participant.

Other rally participants said that seeing revision of the Constitution could unleash unchecked military expansion, stripping away the very safeguards that have kept Japan at peace for eight decades.

"Article 9 of the Constitution is the key. If the nature of the Self-Defense Forces is elevated to a level beyond collective self-defense, which is explicitly written into the Constitution, it will allow the authority of the Self-Defense Forces to expand without limit. So no matter what, I want to prevent this from happening," said one more rally participant.

Japanese citizens rally against Takaichi's military expansion, constitutional revision