China warns Europe over South China Sea ruling, ties at risk

China on Tuesday warned European governments and institutions to stop endorsing what Beijing called an "illegal" South China Sea ruling, saying the stance could damage China-EU ties and cooperation. The rebuke followed a July 11 statement from the European Union marking the 10th anniversary of the 2016 arbitral award and expressing deep concern about rising tensions and dangerous incidents in the South China Sea. Beijing also said it had lodged strong protests with the diplomatic missions of relevant countries and the EU delegation to China.

The legal fight dates to July 12, 2016, when a five-judge tribunal convened under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China’s nine-dash line had no legal basis for historic rights claims. The tribunal also found that Scarborough Shoal is a rock entitled only to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and that none of the Spratly features it examined qualified as islands capable of sustaining a stable human community or independent economic life. The award is final and legally binding, while Beijing says it is "null and void" and that it neither accepts nor recognizes it.

On July 12, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines and several European states, including Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Italy, joined the EU in reaffirming that China’s expansive maritime claims have no legal basis and opposing coercion and destabilizing actions at sea. The South China Sea carries more than one-third of global shipping and also contains fisheries, oil and gas reserves, and repeated coast guard, navy and maritime militia encounters.