Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday arrived in Beijing for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in which he is expected to discuss a ruling on the disputed South China Sea.
A 2016 ruling by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration mostly invalidated China’s claim to virtually the entire South China Sea and found that it contravened the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The dispute over the body of water — a major global shipping route thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves — has for years marred China’s relationship with the Philippines and other neighboring nations with territorial claims over the disputed area, where Beijing has transformed a string of disputed reefs into island military bases.
Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also have competing claims to all or parts of the sea.
However, Duterte has largely avoided the subject in favor of seeking warmer ties with Beijing.
Philippine nationalists and left-wing groups have criticized the president for not immediately demanding Chinese compliance with the arbitration ruling, which came the same year Duterte took office.
The Philippine leader briefly mentioned the issue to Xi on the sidelines of an April conference for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo indicated that Duterte would raise the matter in a more direct way during this visit.
It is unlikely that Duterte’s move will have any effect on China, University of the Philippines maritime affairs expert Jay Batongbacal said.
“China’s position will not change just because Duterte changes tune,” Batongbacal said. “At best, Duterte might be seen as using the arbitration discussion as a move to leverage other concessions. At worst, it may be just for show.”
China refused to participate in the arbitration case initiated by Duterte’s predecessor, then-Philippine president Benigno Aquino III, and has ignored the ruling.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman last week said that the country’s stance has not changed.
Philippine Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana earlier this month asked Beijing to explain the activities of Chinese research vessels and warships in what the Philippines claims as its waters, and accused China of “bullying.”
China did not ask for permission to send several warships through the Sibutu Strait at the southern tip of the Philippine archipelago on four occasions between February and July, Lorenzana said.
Two Chinese research ships have also been operating in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, he said.
Meanwhile, Philippine military spokesman Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo accused China of “duplicity,” claiming that the Chinese warships shut off their identification transponders while passing through Philippine waters to avoid radar detection.
China has said that it is ready to work with the Philippines to jointly safeguard maritime security and order.
In an apparent attempt to ease tensions ahead of yesterday’s meeting, a Chinese fishery association in Guangdong Province earlier this week apologized for colliding with a Philippine fishing boat in June.
The Philippines filed a diplomatic protest after a fisherman said that a Chinese vessel rammed their anchored boat and abandoned them as it sank in Reed Bank (Lile Bank, 禮樂灘).
“I feel deep regret that this accident had to happen and I would like to express my deep sympathy to the Filipino fishermen,” the president of the Guangdong Fishery Mutual Insurance Association said in a letter sent to the Philippine embassy in Beijing.
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