China has no right to “undermine” an international tribunal’s rejection of Beijing’s claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, according to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The award is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dispute, diminish, or abolish,” Duterte said during a virtual address to the United Nations General Assembly. “We firmly reject attempts to undermine it.”
That’s a harder line than Duterte’s team drew earlier this month when a presidential spokesman suggested that Manila would try to “set aside” the territorial disagreement with China in order to clear the path for economic investments and other pacts.
Duterte, who has a penchant for denouncing American leaders while seeking to curry favor with China, instead applauded the influx of diplomatic support from regional neighbors that has taken place since Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a landmark repudiation of China’s territorial ambitions.
“We welcome the increasing number of states that have come in support of the award and what it stands for: the triumph of reason over rashness, of law over disorder, of amity over ambition,” Duterte said.
Still, the Filipino leader reiterated his fear of a confrontation between the United States and China.
“When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled flat,” he said. “Given the size and military might of the contenders, we can only imagine and be aghast at the terrible toll on human life and property that shall be inflicted if the world war deteriorates into a real war of nuclear weapons.”
That warning recalled the misgivings that Duterte previously cited to justify keeping the U.S. at arm’s length, such as his July suggestion that expanding the U.S. military presence in the country would “ensure the extinction of the Filipino race” in a nuclear war.
“China has the arms. We do not … So it’s simple as that,” Duterte said at the time. “They are in possession of the property.”
Pompeo has touted sanctions on the Chinese state-owned companies involved in Beijing’s expansion and militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea, which encouraged other countries in the region to assert their objections to China’s territorial claims. Still, Duterte paired his celebration of those policies with another warning about a potential third world war.
“The global health crisis has further complicated the global security environment, but no aspiration nor ambition can justify the use of weapons that destroy indiscriminately and completely,” he said. “There is no excuse for deaths that a nuclear war could cause.”
