China's Top Diplomat Doubles Down on Sweeping Territorial Claims

Beijing's top diplomat has hammered home China's claim of sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, where its "dashed line" pits it against several neighboring states—most publicly the Philippines.

These countries took advantage of the turmoil China experienced during its Cultural Revolution of the 1960s-70s to occupy South China Sea features, leading to "disputes as we see them today," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Saturday during a Q&A at a security conference in Munich, Germany.

Tensions between Beijing and the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty persist despite a bilateral dialogue last month to reduce them. In recent weeks, China's coast guard again harassed Philippine fishermen at Scarborough Shoal, and the Philippines is beefing up its defenses and increasing patrols in outlying areas of the contentious sea.

Both countries have vowed to stand their ground on the issue.

"The South China Sea islands have been Chinese territory, and when China administered those islands, those surrounding countries had not even been established," Wang said.

Last week, the Philippines' Senate approved an amendment that would allow the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., powers to enforce claims anywhere in the West Philippine Sea, the country's name for those areas lying within its 200-nautical-mile EEZ.

U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, stressed last year the country's "ironclad" defense pact with the Philippines extends to the South China Sea.

Newsweek has reached out to the Philippine embassy in Washington, D.C., with a written request for comment.

China has responded with restraint and "pursued dialogue and negotiation to address these territorial disputes"—"not like some major country that resorts to force easily"—Wang said in a veiled reference to China's primary rival the United States.

Wang pointed to a 2002 agreement, signed by China and the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) states, to support freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

China, as well as its neighbors, are pursuing a more binding and substantive code of conduct for the heavily trafficked waterway, the diplomat said, citing international law such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Wang said this "upgraded" code of conduct has passed three readings.

While China frequently appeals to this convention, it continues to disregard an international arbitral tribunal's 2016 dismissal of China's claimed historical rights over nearly all of the sea.

The five-member tribunal cited the 1982 U.N. convention as the basis for its ruling that China's maritime activities were are violating the Philippines' 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, and that rocks and low-tide reefs are not eligible for territorial waters of their own.

At least one-fifth of global trade is estimated to pass through the strategic waterway.