What ruling? China flexes its muscle

China is emerging stronger than ever from what seemed to be a significant setback to its insistence that most of the South China Sea is its sovereign territory.

Less than a month after the International Court of Arbitration, sitting in The Hague, ruled unequivocally that it had no legal basis for its claim to control the maritime area and the islands and reefs within it, Beijing is carrying on as if the decision was never made.

It was initially buoyed by the surprising soft reaction from Washington with American Secretary of State John Kerry urging that the impasse be solved by negotiation between China and the aggrieved nations that border the South China Sea, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.

This is exactly what China has been advocating for years. However, it has a unique idea of ‘negotiation’ in which it puts its case and everyone accepts it.

While the Government in Manila has sought to play down the United States’ stance, the feeling on the streets is that the Philippines, which brought the case to The Hague, has been hung out to dry and will now have no choice other than to acquiesce to the Chinese position which claims waters to within a few kilometres of the country’s coast. 

In a recent meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations in Laos, China was able to bully enough members of the 10-nation bloc, many of which are dependent on it for economic aid, into simply ignoring the issue.

It has been careful to watch its back with its giant neighbour, India, avoiding a possible flashpoint over the expulsion of three of its journalists accused of “irregular activities” by issuing a rare admission that they were in the wrong.

Having secured its position among its immediate neighbours, Beijing turned the blowtorch on Australia which had called on China to respect the decision of the International Court.

A ringing denouncement of Canberra’s position was issued in an editorial in the Communist Party’s ‘unofficial’ newspaper, Global Times in which Australia was described as a “paper cat with an inglorious history” whose actions could be ignored.

This came at the same time as the Foreign Ministry issued a statement more or less telling Canberra to “behave itself”.

Then came a ploy that Beijing has used before, ordering its students studying in Australia onto the streets in Melbourne for a demonstration supporting its stance.

In yet another flexing of its muscle, Beijing has tightened the screws on Hong Kong, ordering that anyone intending to stand in the forthcoming Legislative Council elections there must sign a declaration pledging allegiance to the Basic Law, especially the articles that state the city is an inseparable part of China.