Keep ‘cool head’ on maritime rift, China envoy tells PH, SCS claimant states

MANILA, Philippines — Chinese Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian called on the Philippines and other claimant states in the South China Sea to keep a “cool head” and make “sober-minded” judgments on the maritime dispute.

In an interview transcript emailed to reporters on Monday, Huang said China and its Southeast Asian neighbors should resolve the dispute on their own.

The Philippines, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all have overlapping claims over the South China Sea.

Huang made the statement as he slammed the US for “intensifying its meddling” in the South China Sea.

“I also hope that the Philippines and other China’s neighbors have a cool head and make a sober-minded judgement on (the) situation,” the envoy said.

‘Don’t hijack overall PH-China relations’

Huang maintained that the maritime dispute between the Philippines and China should not “hijack” the overall relations of the two countries.

“One should not hype up or magnify the disagreements indefinitely, neither allow such disagreements to hijack the overall relations between our two countries. Rather, we should solve differences through constructive dialogue and consultation in constructive manner,” he said.

If the dispute is too complicated to be solved for short term, he said it could be “shelved and wait till time matures, while we should put our attention on the 99 percent of cooperation.”

“Both sides may look at the South China Sea issue from its own perspective, but we need to properly handle and manage the differences,” he added.

Earlier, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. called as “non-negotiable” the historic ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague on July 12, 2016, which invalidated China’s expansive claims over the entire South China Sea.

The decision also upheld the Philippines’ rights over its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

But in response, the Chinese Embassy in Manila claimed that the PCA ruling was “illegal and invalid.”

EDV