Political manipulation behind arbitral tribunal will be revealed: Chinese FM

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that the political manipulation behind the arbitral tribunal will be revealed, in response to the comments made by some foreign ministers on the South China Sea arbitration case. Wang expounded on China's position when attending the 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in the Lao capital Vientiane. Wang said China has not participated in the arbitration case and will not accept the so-called ruling, a position that China has made clear since day one and is supported by strong legal basis. By adopting this position, China is safeguarding the sanctity and impartiality of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), said the Chinese foreign minister. First, the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government violated the principle of having the consent of concerned parties as the basis of arbitration and failed to meet the prerequisite of conducting full exchange of views beforehand, thus lacking the legal conditions to be initiated. What the former Philippine government had done also abandoned bilateral agreements between China and the Philippines and violated Article 4 of the Declaration on Conducts of the Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) as well as the principle of estoppel prescribed in international law, according to Wang. Second, he said, the subject matters of the arbitration, however packaged, in fact directly concern territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation which are beyond the scope of the UNCLOS and the jurisdiction of the ad hoc tribunal. It is a typical act of overstepping the power and ultra vires as well as the abuse of dispute arbitration mechanism. Wang said by citing a prominent legal expert from Europe that the arbitration case undoubtedly touches upon territorial sovereignty which is not governed by the UNCLOS. The tribunal's practice of separating territorial sovereignty dispute with the status of islands and reefs is unseen in international law, which is like "putting the cart before the horse." Third, the ruling of the ad hoc tribunal is full of obvious mistakes, Wang said. It blatantly uses its self-invented rules to negate and deprive the lawful and legitimate territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests of parties concerned. In particular, it says that Taiping Dao, the largest island in the Nansha Islands with an area of 500,000 square meters, is a rock and has no relevant maritime rights. If such a judgment can legally stand, the sea map of the world will need to be redrawn, Wang said. Wang stressed that this ruling runs counter to the spirit of international rule of law as well as the principle and spirit of the UNCLOS. "This arbitration is imbued with question marks and fallacies in terms of procedure, legal application, fact finding and evidence gathering," he said. The so-called ruling is illegal in three aspects: the initiation of the arbitration is illegal, the set-up of the tribunal is illegal, and the result of the arbitration is illegal. Therefore, China's stance is fully legitimate which serves the purpose of upholding international equity and justice and regional peace and stability, Wang said. The Chinese foreign minister said more and more countries have come to see the nature and danger of the arbitration case, and understand and acknowledge China's stance to resolve disputes through direct negotiation and consultation, calling for respect to the rights of sovereign states to independently choose dispute settlement means including respecting the declaration on optional exceptions made under Article 298 of the UNCLOS. There are also more and more legal experts around the world questioning the legality of the arbitration case and the fairness of the ruling, Wang said, noting that the illegal nature of the so-called South China Sea arbitration case and the political manipulation hidden behind the ad hoc arbitral tribunal will be further revealed.

One of church attackers tried to join IS in Syria: Paris prosecutor

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins on Tuesday said one of the church attackers was known to intelligence services and tried to join radical insurgents in Syria twice in 2015. One of the knifemen who slaughtered a priest in a church northern France was "categorically identified" as Adel kermiche, 19, Molins told reporters. He was arrested twice last year after being intercepted by German police in March and Turkish authorities two months later last year while he tried to reach Syria using the ID of his cousin. Returning home, he had been under house arrest and had been wearing an electronic tag allowing police to monitor his moving. The identification of the second attacker was underway, Molins added. The two men armed with knives entered a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, on Tuesday morning mass and seized six people before killing a priest and seriously wounding another person. Paris prosecutor also confirmed that a 16-year-old teenager was placed under custody in the investigation. He was believed to be the brother of someone wanted by police for trying to go to Syria in the previous year. The two men shot dead by police had fake explosives and used nuns as human shields, he added.

Boycott calls grow against South Korea

Although the Chinese government has not imposed any sanctions following the US announcement to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system in South Korea, public calls to boycott South Korean pop stars and products have been growing on Chinese social media. The decision of Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province to postpone the visit of an official delegation from a South Korean sister city due to the "inappropriate atmosphere," as the local government puts it, is believed to be another sign of increasing strains in China-South Korea ties at the grass-roots level. "The visit of a delegation headed by Daegu mayor Kwon Young-jin in August was postponed for various reasons," an official at the Qingdao Foreign Affairs Office told the Global Times on Tuesday. "The timing is not appropriate and the atmosphere is not good," said the official, who requested anonymity. The official neither admitted nor denied whether the THAAD issue led to the postponement, only saying that some local people showed discontent after the deployment. Kwon and 90 city officials were scheduled to attend the Qingdao International Beer Festival in August, and the group was to open 11 booths at the festival to promote Korean fried chicken, South Korea's Joongang Daily reported on Monday. Qingdao and Daegu have been sister cities since 1993, a year after China and South Korea established diplomatic relations. The host of Qingdao's beer festival told the Global Times that they have not heard of any report saying the Daegu delegation is unwanted or was refused entry. The government official said that 19 people from Qingdao, including performers, will not attend the Daegu Chimac Festival which begins on Wednesday, though some Qingdao companies will still participate in the festival. In 2013, when the first Daegu Chimac Festival was held, and the following year, Qingdao sent 10 artists to perform at the festival. No one was sent last year because of the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the Joongang Daily reported. 'No idol before country' On July 8, the US and South Korea announced their decision to deploy the THAAD system in South Korea, which drew angry protest from Beijing. The decision, which was announced a few days before an arbitration court in The Hague was expected to rule on the maritime territorial disputes between China and the Philippines, has also hurt the feelings of many Chinese people, who previously regarded South Korea as a friendly neighbor, and the image of the country has been deteriorating ever since, Zheng Jiyong, director of the Center for Korean Studies of the Shanghai-based Fudan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday. The deployment also tarnished South Korean President Park Geun-hye's image among many Chinese, who felt the "always smiling and friendly president" had stabbed China in the back, said Dong Xiangrong, a research fellow at the National Institute of International Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Park won praise from China after she resisted US pressure and visited Beijing in September last year to observe a military parade to mark the defeat of Japan in World War II. Chinese netizens are calling for a boycott of Korean pop stars, such as boy bands BigBang, EXO and iKon, and actors like Song Joong-ki and Lee Jong-suk. The hashtag "No idols before country" on Chinese social media Sina Weibo has been viewed more than 15 million times as of press time, with many saying they had un-followed the South Korean entertainers' Weibo accounts. "Farewell, Big Bang, fried chicken, cosmetics made in South Korea, I love my country and there's no way I will contribute to the GDP of South Korea so that the country could buy weapons and use it against China," Sina Weibo user "Emily-Chun" wrote on Friday. The boycott also covers South Korean-made products and travel to the country, with Net users compiling a list of the 10 most visited South Korea tourist sites and 100 most popular products, with calls to support domestic substitutes. South Korean concerns Many South Koreans are also worried that the THAAD deployment will damage bilateral ties, and protests against the deployment have not stopped since the announcement was made. More than 2,000 people from Seongju County, where one THAAD battery will be deployed, staged a rally at a square in Seoul on Thursday to protest the THAAD deployment, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Also last week, hundreds of young people rallied outside South Korea's foreign ministry, holding signs saying "Peace and No THAAD" to protest the deployment and to demand its withdrawal, said Dong. Many South Koreans reject THAAD because they say it cannot protect the country and the deployment will create trouble in the region, experts said.

FM slams 3 countries’ ‘inappropriate’ statement

China's foreign minister on Tuesday condemned a statement on the South China Sea issue jointly released by the US, Japan and Australia, saying it is "inappropriate" and not conducive to regional peace and stability. The statement issued by the three countries on Monday said they strongly support the rule of law and called on China to abide by the arbitration tribunal's award. The statement said the ruling is final and legally binding. "From yesterday to today, what we can see is that countries in the region are determined to strengthen cooperation, hoping to de-escalate tensions in the South China Sea. However, the statement is still creating tensions," Wang Yi said on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit Foreign Minister's Meeting. Wang said that the statement is very "inappropriate" and runs counter to the situation's development. "If the three [the US, Japan and Australia] truly wish for stability in the South China Sea, they should support China and the ASEAN in implementing the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, support the resolution of disputes through consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned. It is time to show who they really are, whether they are the peacekeepers or troublemakers," Wang said. US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Monday. The three ministers released the joint statement after their meeting. Meanwhile, another senior Chinese diplomat on Tuesday said he has confidence in the dialogue between China and the Philippines. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin confirmed to the Global Times on Tuesday that Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay has shown openness to talks. "He welcomed talks with China and said that he will make arrangements. It is a positive sign the Philippines, too, recognizes that negotiations are the right way to resolve disputes," Liu said. Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos has accepted his appointment as a special envoy to China after an arbitration tribunal ruled that China's claims within the nine-dash line are "baseless." China rejected the ruling and called it "null and void." Liu said China is waiting for further details from the Philippines, and aside from naming Ramos a special envoy, the Philippines probably has a lot of other things to do before bilateral talks can take place. "In fact, we are confident in talks between the two countries," Liu said. The 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings ended on Tuesday.

Chinese airline denies flying over restricted airspace

A Chinese airline company Tuesday denied Russian media reports that four of its planes had entered restricted airspace above Seversk City in Southeast Russia's Tomsk state, where Russia's largest nuclear facilities are located. The planes were at least 10 kilometers away from forbidden airspace above Seversk, an anonymous official from the airline company claimed to the Global Times Tuesday. "Civil aircraft will not drift off the course provided by local national air traffic control departments," said the official. A Seversk resident, Evgeny Kornev, said he witnessed Friday four Chinese planes flying over the city, Russian newspaper Vzglyad reported Sunday, citing Tomsk News Agency TV2. "First I heard the noise of an airplane flying," said Kornev, "[Then I] logged on to flightradar24.com and saw a Chinese plane flying directly above Seversk, which had never happened before." Kornev said that the website recorded three other Chinese planes flying over the city in the next 24 hours. The airline company official said that the 24-hour flight radar website, whose data was quoted by Russian media, is incorrect. Seversk is an industrial city where Russia's largest nuclear facility is located, and all types of aircraft are forbidden from flying above the city, according to Vzglyad.

Foreign Ministry expecting fruitful Mongolia trip by Premier Li

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's upcoming visit to Mongolia will encourage closer alignment of China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative with Mongolia's Prairie Road program, according to a senior official from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Li's visit to Mongolia from July 13 to 14 will be the first by a Chinese premier in six years, and the first by any Chinese leader since the recent formation of Mongolia's new government. Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Kong Xuanyou told a press conference on Monday that the trip will strengthen bilateral relations and lead to more cooperation between the two neighbors. Li will hold talks with Mongolian Prime Minister Jargaltulga Erdenebat and they will jointly meet the press, said Kong. Li will also meet with Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj and Chairman of the State Great Hural (Mongolia's parliament) Miyegombo Enkhbold. Li and Erdenebat will exchange views on dovetailing the two countries' economic corridor initiatives, and more cooperation in trade, industrial capacity, energy, finance, agriculture and animal husbandry. The two sides will also discuss people-to-people exchanges and international and regional issues of common concern, said Kong. A number of cooperative agreements will be signed during Li's visit, which will inject new impetus into the development of bilateral ties and benefit people of the two nations, he added. Li will also attend the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in Mongolian capital Ulan Bator from July 15 to 16. This year marks the 20th anniversary of ASEM since it was inaugurated in 1996 in Bangkok, Thailand. ASEM is now an intergovernmental forum with 53 members. The Chinese premier will deliver keynote speeches during the summit to elaborate China's proposition on ASEM's future development, Asia-Europe cooperation, as well as major international and regional issues, Kong said. During the summit, Li will also held bilateral meetings with leaders of some ASEM members, he added. As a founding member of the ASEM, China has put forward 28 proposals on Asia-Europe cooperation in fields including infrastructure connectivity, technology innovation, environmental protection, trade and investment, and urbanization. The members should foster a sense of community, enhance communication and coordination on policies and actions, so as to build the ASEM into an effective framework for coping with global challenges, including climate change, terrorism, refugee problems and infectious disease, said Kong.

President Xi says China rejects any proposition, action based on S. China Sea arbitration award

Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will not accept any proposition or action based on the award issued on Tuesday by the South China Sea arbitral tribunal unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government. Xi said China's territorial sovereignty and maritime interests in South China Sea, under any circumstances, will not be affected by the award. Xi made the remarks on Tuesday afternoon while meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in downtown Beijing.

No immediate copycat moves expected: observers

The final ruling of an international tribunal on territorial disputes between China and the Philippines, which favored the latter, may encourage other claimants to consider international arbitration or at least seek greater interference in the South China Sea from outside powers, observers warned on Tuesday. However, because of each claimant country's unique political and economical interests, coupled with the need to strike a delicate balance between powers like China and the US, it will be hard for these countries to move toward challenging China any time soon, observers said. "China must be prepared to reduce the fallout of the arbitration case with other claimant countries," Gu Xiaosong, an expert on Southeast Asian studies at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday. Scholars agreed that among the other claimant countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, Vietnam will most likely challenge China's maritime territories. "Vietnam occupies the biggest number of islands or islets in the South China Sea and has the biggest area of overlapping maritime claims with China," Gu said. "With strong nationalistic sentiment, Vietnam is unlikely to back off on its claims," Gu noted. Ei Sun Oh, principal adviser of Malaysia-based think tank Pacific Research Center, also said he does not rule out the possibility of Vietnam seeking a similar arbitration, emboldened by the favorable ruling the Philippines received. In a July 1 comment on the arbitration court's decision to deliver its final ruling, the Vietnamese foreign ministry said it was closely watching the case and expects a "just and objective" decision. It stressed that resolving the maritime disputes is "in accordance with international law," and it supports the "strict implementation of the 1982 UNCLOS." The Philippines filed an arbitration case under UNCLOS in January 2013. But China insists the court has no jurisdiction over the case and refuses to participate. Oh said the tribunal decision that turned down the legal basis of China's nine-dash line, which marks its sea borders in the south, will have a bearing on the other claimant countries' sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, most of which intersect with the nine-dash line coverage. "Of course, the criteria used by the court in determining the status of those maritime features may also be applied to those countries' claimed South China Sea maritime features," he said. What next? However, observers believe the claimants will not take immediate action after the Philippine case, citing various considerations. Indonesia is not likely to challenge China since it is the "big brother" of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and will consider preserving relations between China and the ASEAN a priority, said Gu, adding that China has said it has no objection to Indonesia's sovereignty over the Natuna Islands. Malaysia will value its overall ties with China, being China's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, experts said. "Although Vietnam hopes it could use the influence of the US to gain its own territorial interests in the South China Sea, it does not want to lose its long-term political and economic cooperation with China," Gu said. "The nature of Sino-Vietnamese relations is such that, due to similar ideologies, they succeed in patching up their differences, at least temporarily, through party-to-party channels," said Oh. Pan Jin'e, a research fellow of Vietnamese studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the tribunal's decision favoring the Philippines may not necessarily be a good thing for Vietnam, as Vietnam also has disputes with the Philippines over some islets. The bigger threat to China, analysts said, is that regional countries may allow the greater presence of outside powers. "If the countries' perception of China's increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea does not subside, they are likely to be open to or even encourage the participation of powerful extra-regional countries, such as the US, Japan and India, to provide what they perceive as a 'balance' against China's weight," said Oh.

Over 20,000 people sign open letter against South China Sea arbitration award

Over 20,000 people have signed an open letter contesting the award on the South China Sea (SCS) arbitration case by an ad hoc tribunal here on Tuesday. The 2,500-word letter, drafted by a group of young Chinese scholars who currently study international law in the Netherlands, slams the controversial case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines for its lack of legality, noting that the arbitral decision violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Shortly after the tribunal issued the award, the scholars sent the letter to the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea under the United Nations (UN) Office of Legal Affairs, and required the institution to forward it to all parties of the UNCLOS. Copies of the letter were also sent to international judicial and arbitral organs, such as the International Criminal Court, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, as well as major law schools across the world. The letter has been posted online and circulated on social media platforms, inviting people to participate and show solidarity against the ungrounded ruling. It has collected over 20,000 signatures in less than two hours. Many law schools have voiced support for the letter and retweeted it on their official social media accounts. The letter criticizes the tribunal for ignoring the nature of the SCS disputes, and ruling on a case that it has no jurisdiction over. "The real disputes in the arbitration are those regarding territory and maritime delimitation," it says. "With respect to the jurisdiction, the UNCLOS does not address territorial disputes, and delimitation disputes have been excluded from compulsory procedures by China's declaration under Article 298." Therefore, the case demonstrates how the legal process is abused by one party to the dispute, and how the arbitral organ acts beyond its power, according to the letter. "By obscuring the real disputes and bypassing the limits to compulsory procedures, the Philippines does abuse the legal process, the tribunal does exceed the state consent and act ultra vires (acts beyond one's legal power or authority)," the letter says. "According to Article 296 (of the UNCLOS), the awards on jurisdiction and on merits will have no binding force whatsoever." In conclusion, the letter requests international judicial and arbitral organs to act strictly within their mandate under international law, calls on all parties to the UNCLOS to join China in the efforts to combat abuse of legal process, and invites scholars, students and lawyers to further study the UNCLOS disputes settlement mechanism so as to contribute to a peaceful settlement of SCS disputes. Among 8,000-more Chinese students studying in the Netherlands, over 100 are in faculties of law across the country. Those specializing in international law and the Law of the Sea set up a research group for the drafting of the open letter. "We cannot believe that such a bizarre case was able to keep advancing in The Hague, capital of international law," said Peng Qinxuan, 29, PhD candidate of international law at Utrecht University and active member of the group. "In this case, the arbitrators failed to see the wood for the trees. But we scholars of international law have the duty to present the truth," she said. Peng and her peers spent three months drafting the letter in English and translating it into Chinese and Dutch. "In my six years of life in the Netherlands, I have noticed that the Western media coverage on China is full of bias and there is no exception when it comes to the arbitration," said Wang Zhili, a candidate for master degree from the Ultrecht University who also participated in circulating the open letter. "In-depth articles with a neutral stance over the issue are really hard to find. That's why we decided to post the letter online," Wang added.

Bernie Sanders endorses Hillary Clinton for 2016 US election

Hillary Clinton's bitter rival in the Democratic Party presidential nomination race Bernie Sanders on Tuesday endorsed Clinton for the 2016 US election. "Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating process," said Sanders during his first joint campaign appearance with Clinton after a chaotic primary season. "She will be the Democratic nominee for president and I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States," said Sanders. Sanders' endorsement came more than a month after Clinton clinched the Democratic Party nomination, and brought to the end a chaotic and divisive Democratic primary season where Sanders questioned Clinton's judgement as the country's future leader.