China must be seething. A ruling of the international tribunal in The Hague that says China has no historical rights over the waters of the South China Sea has enraged
Beijing like never before. To be told that you are wrong is not easy to swallow and certainly not by the second largest economy in the world. But, as China has painfully discovered, claims must have a legal backing. Beijing has rejected the ruling on grounds that the issue concerns national sovereignty which cannot be decided by the tribunal. This is a very small fig leaf to hide behind and Beijing knows it. The case was brought before the tribunal in 2013 by The Philippines which claimed that China had violated its territorial waters by building an artificial island and impinged on its fishing rights.
The nine-dash line used by China to indicate its claims on the
map usurps the territorial waters of Malaysia, Vietnam and
Brunei. Being a powerful neighbour, the smaller nations are
in no position to take on China. Although the ruling cannot be
enforced, it represents a moral and legal victory for the smaller
nations. In order to claim its place in the world, Beijing cannot
be seen as a bully and it will and must attempt to sign agreements
with smaller nations which would give it what it wants
in return for something back, not the ideal bargaining position
that Beijing would have hoped for.
