Unilateral legislation by the Philippines will not solve its dispute with China over Huangyan Dao and only negotiations will solve the standoff, according to Chinese and Philippine experts.
The Chinese government delimited and announced the baselines of the territorial sea adjacent to Huangyan Dao on Sunday in response to the absurd claims of the Philippines in its newly enacted domestic laws.
In a recent interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) via video link, Anna Rosario Malindog-Uy, director and vice president for External Affairs of the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute, said more talks and less "high politics" would help resolve the issue.
"If I would be asked about a solution to the dispute in the South China Sea, I don't think legalistic solution and strategy would work, because at the end of the day, even if you have these laws, really the problem there is enforcement. For me, the way I see it, if you really want to settle the South China Sea dispute that it would be peaceful and more stable and secure, not only between the Philippines and China, but the whole region, basically is to really focus on low politics and not high politics because this is high politics dynamics," she said.
"Low politics is more about trying to have that possible joint cooperation, maybe an oil and gas exploration and ventures, joint fishery management, joint scientific marine exploration in the South China Sea by all claimant states and you would reduce the tension. Because having this kind of situation at the moment, you can see there's really an escalation of tension between the two countries. Politically speaking and diplomatically speaking, I don't think it would resolve anything at all," she added.
Yang Li, executive director of the Institute for China-Europe Studies, said he remains upbeat about the future development of the situation as communications channels are still open between the two countries.
"I think for both sides, they still have political will to manage the situation so that I'm relatively optimistic about the future prospect that I think China and the Philippines will sit down and talk between themselves and the bilateral channels and communication mechanisms are still in place. As long as they have political will to make full use of that, I think that those mechanisms can play a very constructive role in managing the disputes. But however, I think China also sent a very strong signal by announcing these countermeasures. For any perceived provocations, there would be consequences. So, I think this is kind of a two-pronged approach," he said.
Philippines' so-called laws will not solve Huangyan Dao dispute: experts
