Commentary: Philippine president's absurd fanfare

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III's distortion of the South China Sea issue during his ongoing visit to Japan came as no surprise. His senseless fanfare only revealed shallowness and absurdity.

During the trip, Aquino even violated the most basic norm of diplomacy, likening China to Nazi Germany by hinting at similarities between Beijing's legitimate, fair and reasonable land-reclamation in the South China Sea and Nazi Germany's expansionist moves before World War II (WWII). He also invited the United States to interfere in the South China Sea issue.

China has undisputed sovereignty over the islands and adjacent waters in the South China Sea. Besides ancient historical evidences, those littoral countries also raised no objections when China conducted sea border surveys and demarcation after WWII.

However, as Russian weekly Vlast said, "everything has changed" after oil was first found in 1976 on the continental shelf of the Palawan island, soon after which the Philippines issued a presidential decree claiming the Nansha Islands as its "territories."

Over the past decades, the Philippines used forces to illegally occupy some of China's islands and reefs in the South China Sea, attempted to steal and seize China's Ren'ai Reef with its stranded warship serving as a "beach-sitting" installation since 1999, and dispatched warships to assault and harass Chinese fishing boats and fishermen that operated normally near China's Huangyan island.

In recent years, the Philippines has also frequently staged joint military exercises in the South China Sea with forces outside the region.

Aquino's calculation is obvious: Involving forces outside the region in the South China Sea can enable the Philippines to benefit from "muddy waters" and achieve its goal of permanently occupying some islands and reefs in the South China Sea.

To that end, the Philippines disregarded the Declaration on the Conducts of Parties in the South China Sea it has signed, and discarded the consensus it once reached with China.

China is a responsible country that is dedicated to solving the territorial disputes through direct negotiations with relevant countries.

Meanwhile, China's will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests is firm and unswerving. It does not bully small countries, but will not sit idle on any provocation or trouble-making by any country.

Philippine leaders should be seriously warned that they must stop irresponsible fanfare and provocations, discard their illusions, and return to the right track of solving the disputes through bilateral negotiations. Endi