Joma asks China to respect ruling

From Malaya Business Insight (Jul 14): Joma asks China to respect ruling

CHINA will “certainly face reputational damage” if it continues to violate international law, according to Jose Ma. “Joma” Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Sison issued the statement after an arbitration tribunal in The Hague ruled that China has no historic title over the South China Sea and that it breached the sovereign rights of the Philippines by constructing artificial reefs and blocking Manila’s fishing and petroleum exploration activities.

China has long been saying it would not recognize any ruling by the arbitration court.

Sison asked China to respect the ruling.

“It cannot boast of its supposed economic and military power to ignore or violently oppose the judgment of the Tribunal,” Sison said.

He said it is a time of “serious economic and social troubles for China domestically because of its own crisis of overproduction and extreme abuse of credit and public debt and because of the ever worsening crisis of the global capitalist system.”

Sison said the tribunal holds China “culpable for having violated the sovereign rights of the Philippines, unjustly attacking or hindering Filipino fishermen, preventing Philippine oil exploration and other economic activities, damaging marine life and environment by unlawfully building artificial islands and endangering navigation.”

“China must accept the ruling in the face of the international community, especially the signatories of the UNCLOS, the majority members of the UN General Assembly, the Asean and other neighboring countries,” he said.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/joma-asks-china-respect-ruling