Move by Manila criticized

China criticized the Philippines on Tuesday for "betraying bilateral consensus" on resolving its South China Sea concerns through negotiations, as an international tribunal began closed hearing on Manila's case for arbitration over the issue.

The five-member Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is to "address China's contention that the arbitration body does not have authority to assume jurisdiction over Manila's complaint against Beijing", The Associated Press reported.

The Philippines initiated the arbitration case in January 2013.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday that China has repeatedly stated its position that it will not participate in any hearing and will not accept any result.

Manila's decision to initiate arbitration has violated its promises regarding the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, Hua said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

"China opposes any actions taken by the Philippines to initiate and advance arbitration procedures," she said.

Li Jinming, a professor of South China Sea studies at Xiamen University, said the Philippines' request for international arbitration is intended to "tarnish China's image, making it out to be a villain".

"Manila is eager for an early completion of arbitration" because the Philippine leadership will be reshuffled in 2016, Li said.

"They (the Philippines) attempt to shape and make use of world opinion to justify their illegal occupation of Chinese islands" in the South China Sea, Li said.

Hua noted that in December, the Foreign Ministry was authorized to release a position paper on the South China Sea arbitration initiated by the Philippines that found the tribunal has no jurisdiction at all.

"Based on the foregoing positions and by virtue of the freedom of every state to choose the means of dispute settlement, China's rejection of and nonparticipation in the present arbitration stands on solid ground in international law," it said.

Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said Manila was "sugarcoating its lawsuit" by stating that the matters before tribunal have nothing to do with the territorial sovereignty of the islands.

Tensions have overshadowed the Philippines' relationship with China recently as the Manila government released a three-episode documentary criticized by some observers as "instigating hostility among ethnic groups inside the country and inflaming hatred against China outside the country".

Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the Philippines had elaborately prepared for its first tribunal on the issue, and signs pointed toward a US stake in the case.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman John Kirby would not comment specifically on whether the US favors the Philippine pursuit for arbitration at the tribunal. He said he would let the Philippine government speak to the actions they are taking, but he reiterated that the US takes no position on the claims but takes position on the change of status quo.

"We haven't and we are not going to start dictating the vehicles through which diplomatic, legal resolutions can occur. And that's for the governments involved to decide," he told a daily briefing. But he added that "as long as the vehicle was suitable to both parties, resolve the issues amicably and is legal."

"But we are not going to proscribe to individual nations how they should go about working with China towards resolutions," he said.

Most Chinese regard the US as biased in favor of the Philippines, its treaty ally, in the maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea. They also see the US rebalance to Asia strategy as a scheme to rally regional countries against China, especially the Philippines and Vietnam which have maritime territorial disputes with China.

Jeffrey Bader, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council from 2009-2011 wrote in an article last month that the common media meme, that the 60 percent of the world's commerce that flows through the South China Sea is somehow threatened by China, is absurd. "China is at least as dependent on others for the free flow of goods, and it has taken no action to hinder it," he wrote.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama met visiting Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on the 20th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relationship.

The Washington Post described Obama's reception for Trong at the Oval Office as rare for someone who is not official head of state. "Obama's overture to Vietnam is part of a large strategy by his administration to shift US diplomatic attention away from traditional hot spots in the Middle East and Europe to meet China's rise in Asia," writes the Post article titled "Obama working to make Vietnam an ally against China".

The unusual warm welcome was also seen as a US effort to push Vietnam to move forward the TPP trade agreement.

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn and chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com