When the Philippines initiated arbitration proceedings before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in January 2013 against China’s expansive claims and assertions about its supposed “historic rights” over the South China Sea on the basis of its so-called “nine-dash line,” many – including the United States based on the information we received – were initially doubtful about the initiative taken by the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.

During the Obama presidency, the United States was not too eager in supporting the PCA suit. Their policy then was, “The United States does not get involved in territorial disputes.” There were also those – including within the Philippines – who were skeptical about such a move because China, after all, was a giant in terms of economic and military might, while the Philippines “did not have much conventional power,” as one analyst described it. In fact, former Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi stated during an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in 2010, “China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact.”

Red More–>PCA arbitral ruling: Seven years after