![]() The May 2014 White Paper that China issued after President Xi Jinping’s visit to Brussels clearly reflects this. It has warned the EU not to meddle in this issue and to stay out of it. Xinhua chequebook series#Beijing has clearly signalled that it considers the territorial disputes in that sea to be a series of bilateral issues between China and each of its neighbours, rather than a multilateral issue. In the past, the EU has carefully danced around the complex issues involved in the South China Sea disputes. It is widely acknowledged by legal scholars that the ruling alone will not settle the issue but will create clarity and a foundation on which to begin a process of negotiations which will eventually help lead to a settlement of the dispute. In the process China has paradoxically magnified the international dimension of the dispute by using carrots and sticks to encourage countries to support its proposed bilateral approach, rather than the application of rule of law under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In this it has also made efforts to shore up support from countries around the world.Ī diverse range of countries including Poland, India and Fiji have indicated that China’s official news agency, Xinhua, has misrepresented their respective positions on the tribunal. It has worked to discredit the tribunal and has refused to recognise its authority. The conundrum for the EU is how it will balance the principle of supporting the rule of law against its pragmatic desire to stay on Beijing’s good side.īeijing is concerned not only by the Arbitral Tribunal’s ruling, which it has declared that it will not abide by it is also concerned by the court of international public opinion. ![]() ![]() ![]() The EU’s approach to China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea can be described as ‘principled pragmatism’, based on a pragmatic pursuit of its own interests on one hand and on upholding the principles of international law on the other. ![]()
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