The arbitral panel had an opportunity to chart a constructive approach to one of the foremost legal questions of the Asia-Pacific. However, where it should have chosen to foster mutually cooperative tendencies on ill-understood provisions of the law, the award performed a disservice with consequences that will reverberate for a considerable time to come.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not raise long-simmering maritime disputes with China at a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Laos next month, preferring to talk quietly with Chinese officials.

On August 10-11, Philippine Former President and Special Envoy Fidel V. Ramos met in Hong Kong with his old friends －Madam Fu Ying and Professor Wu Shicun in a friendly atmosphere. They discussed, in their private capacity, the way forward in the spirit of universal brotherhood and sisterhood for peace and cooperation between the two countries.

The once anticipated expansive maritime entitlements of numerous small maritime features have now been determined to possess nothing greater than a 12 nautical mile territorial sea. Now, all of the claimants in the South China Sea should be able to step back and reassess how they view the region both diplomatically and peacefully.

The notorious arbitration case will become a negative example in the history of international judicial and legal practice. In the meantime, the US has lost support among ordinary Chinese people for what had been a popular China policy.

No country is willing to accept an international judicial judgment or arbitration award against its unwillingness, especially when such judgment is related to a major political issue that concerns the state. Thus, China is correct in its decision of non-acceptance in allowing a third party mechanism to determine a territorial dispute and maritime delimitation.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he supported the resumption of bilateral talks between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, following a ruling against Beijing over the dispute earlier this month.

China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea and adjacent waters is a reasonable, legitimate historical fact that can’t be denied by any party, any means. It is utterly groundless to accuse China of violating international law, and the US-inspired tribunal merely increases tension to no purpose.

Though The Hague ruling pertains to the Philippines-China dispute, it will bolster similar claims by other states against China’s nine-dash line; it will increase pressure on China to seek a negotiated resolution to the overlapping claims; and it will circumscribe China’s SCS claims. In response, China must assure the ASEAN states of its benign intentions, dispelling impressions of hegemonic intentions.

The Philippines has turned down a Chinese proposal to start bilateral talks, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, because of Beijing's pre-condition of not discussing a court ruling that nullified most of its South China Sea claims.