China strongly condemns and resolutely rejects the statement by Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, which came ten years after the so-called arbitration award on the South China Sea in 2016, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.
According to the spokesperson, the statement openly supports the unlawful arbitration award, attacks China's legitimate claims, and wrongly portrays Japan as a "legitimate actor utilizing the South China Sea."
China urged Japan to stop smearing China, spreading disinformation about the South China Sea, and disrupting peace and stability in the region. According to the spokesperson, China will continue to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea.
Any attempts to undermine China's legitimate rights and interests and disrupt peace and stability in the South China Sea are doomed to fail, according to the spokesperson.
The spokesperson emphasized that Japan is not a party to the disputes in the South China Sea and therefore has no right to comment on China's territorial sovereignty or maritime rights and interests in this area.
During World War II, Japan committed countless crimes that caused immense suffering to China and its people. These included the unlawful occupation of islands and reefs in the South China Sea. Now, decades later, Japan is once again attempting to interfere in the affairs of the South China Sea under the guise of being an "interested party."
"This reminds people of the history of Japanese aggression and expansionism and increases their vigilance towards Japan's new militaristic agenda," said the spokesperson.
China's sovereignty over the Nanhai Zhudao islands and related rights and interests in the South China Sea have been formed through a long historical process and have a solid legal basis, according to the spokesperson.
China's activities in the South China Sea are entirely legitimate, lawful, and beyond reproach, the spokesperson emphasized. He stressed that no court-created arbitration tribunal can deny China's rights in this area.
According to the spokesperson, the tribunal exceeded its authority and abused its jurisdiction when issuing the award. Therefore, the decision is unlawful, invalid, null and void, and has no binding force. At the same time, according to the Chinese side, it seriously violated the integrity and authority of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and dealt a heavy blow to the international legal order.
China does not accept or recognize the award and rejects all claims or actions that are based on it, said the spokesperson.
According to the spokesperson, Japan is ignoring the obvious flaws in the arbitration decision while publicly supporting it, thereby revealing its double standards and hypocrisy.
According to the award, Taiping Dao, an island in the Nansha Qundao archipelago with an area of approximately 500,000 square meters and possessing freshwater, vegetables, fruits, and poultry that allow for human settlement, is not considered an island. Therefore, it cannot create a claim for an exclusive economic zone or a continental shelf.
"If this interpretation were to hold, how could Okinotori, which consists of only two small reefs with a total area of less than ten square meters in the Pacific Ocean, justify Japan's claim to an exclusive economic zone and a continental shelf of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers?" said the spokesperson.
According to this standard, many Japanese islands and reefs would not have a legal basis for establishing maritime rights and interests, he added.
Because Japan has publicly supported the arbitration award, China has reason to believe that Tokyo has accepted the same standard and voluntarily relinquished its corresponding maritime claims, according to the spokesperson.
The spokesperson further stated that Japan's true interest is not the international legal order, but rather interfering in the situation in the South China Sea and destabilizing it.
According to him, Japan has recently been strengthening cooperation with the Philippines and expanding arms and military equipment exports to that country. It has also repeatedly sent military forces abroad and deployed attack missiles.
"These actions go far beyond the scope of self-defense, deviate from the Japanese constitution and international law norms, and challenge the post-war international order. This raises the question: What is Japan's true intention?" said the spokesperson.
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