December 25, 2014

"China's rejection of the international process represented by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague is both a missed opportunity and a disappointing corollary to its intransigence on the South China Sea dispute. 

Beijing's visceral opposition to third-party arbitration is based on the suspicion that the process is a means of exerting political pressure on it over territory it thinks is inherently Chinese. 

Thus, its recent position paper dismisses the special arbitral tribunal-where the Philippines filed a memorial this year-as having no jurisdiction over the issue. Instead, it asserts the "historical rights" that give Beijing indisputable sovereignty over disputed features."

Read more:

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20141225000250