File photo of Cui Tiankai, Chinese Ambassador to the United States. (Photo/Xinhua)
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said his country will not yield to any pressure or make deals for its core interests.
He made the remarks in a speech in Washington on Tuesday afternoon following the ruling announced in the morning by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in a case brought by the Philippines against China regarding disputes in the South China Sea.
"We will not yield to any pressure, be it in the form of military activities, media criticism or some self-claimed legal bodies," Cui said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at the end of a full-day conference on the South China Sea.
"And we will certainly not make deals with our core interest just for a few words of praise," he added.
His speech came after the Chinese government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs respectively issued statements on China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and on the award by the arbitration tribunal.
In front a crowd of several hundred people, including many experts on maritime law and international relations, Cui attributed China's rejection of the arbitration to the fact that it violates the general practice that arbitration should be premised on a state's consent.
China, like dozens of other countries, made an optional exceptional declaration in 2006 in accordance with Article 298 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), excluding issues like maritime delimitation for such processes. China has repeatedly stated that the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the case.
"The case was also carefully masked," Cui said. "But it is beyond any doubt that the core issue is a territorial dispute, and territorial issues are not subject to UNCLOS."
He described the tribunal's failure to recognize that as "a matter of professional incompetence," adding that "deliberate disregard is a matter of questionable integrity".
Cui described the case as initiated not out of good faith and said the proceedings will probably do great damage to the efforts by members of the international community to engage in negotiations and consultation for settlement of any possible disputes.
"Such absurd proceedings were taking place in combination with military coercion — with mounting activities by destroyers, aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, reconnaissance planes and many others," he said, clearly referring to the escalating US military presence and activities in the South China Sea.
