Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi restated Beijing’s rejection of the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling on Friday, on the eve of the ruling’s ninth anniversary, amid renewed tensions and growing speculation about a potential second legal challenge.
Calling the decision a “farce”, Wang said the case, brought by the Philippines against China’s South China Sea claims and ruled on by a tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, was “orchestrated and manipulated by external powers”.
Their purpose “was to destabilise the South China Sea for their own benefit”, Wang said during the annual East Asian foreign ministers’ meetings in Kuala Lumpur.
He said China works to maintain stability in the region and has been speeding up the negotiation of a binding South China Sea code of conduct with Asean.
“All attempts to stir up trouble or sow discord will ultimately fail,” he added.
The Philippines filed the case with the court in 2013, but Beijing refused to participate.
