China Tells Philippines to Drop South China Sea Campaign at UN
China's deputy permanent representative to the UN said the Philippines should stop raising the South China Sea dispute in multilateral forums and resume direct talks.
China has called on the Philippines to stop pressing the South China Sea dispute in multilateral settings and to return to direct negotiations, with a senior Chinese diplomat telling the United Nations General Assembly that the issue does not belong on the world body's agenda.
Exercising the right of reply during the General Debate of the Assembly's 81st session, Sun Lei, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, responded to remarks the Philippine side had delivered two days earlier. He said Beijing has consistently held that the UN is not the appropriate forum for discussing the South China Sea.
Sun restated China's long-standing rejection of the 2016 arbitration ruling, arguing that Manila's unilateral move to initiate the case breached core principles of international law, including state consent and the obligation to honour agreements, and ran counter to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The tribunal, he said, overstepped its authority and abused its jurisdiction, rendering the award illegal, null and void. China neither accepts nor recognises it, he added, and will not entertain any claim or action stemming from it.
He framed that stance as a defence of both China's territorial and maritime rights and the wider international maritime legal order.
Addressing the timing of the dispute, Sun said the Philippines' renewed focus on the award a decade after it was issued serves little purpose. In his account, the ruling has not settled maritime differences between the two countries; instead, it has become a means for Manila to press broader territorial and maritime claims, heightening regional tensions and obstructing both bilateral ties and stability in the South China Sea.
On territorial questions and maritime delimitation disputes, Sun said China will not accept any settlement imposed on it and has consistently backed resolution through negotiation and consultation with the states directly involved.
He said China would keep working with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to protect peace and stability in the South China Sea, and urged the Philippines to rejoin the path of bilateral consultation, manage differences with China and cooperate on safeguarding the region.