Leading international law experts said any verdict by the Arbitral Tribunal on the South China Sea will be of no legal validity, at a seminar on the South China Sea Arbitration and International Rule of Law in the Hague on June 26. [Photo by Fu Jing/chinadaily.com.cn]

A tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is due to make a ruling on the unilateral arbitration case submitted by the Philippines on its territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea on July 12. As that day draws nearer, the West has once again launched a propaganda offensive to try and bring shame on China.

Given that it is the former Philippine administration of Benigno Aquino III that breached the consensus reached between Beijing and Manila on the settlement of their bilateral disputes through talks, it is unreasonable for some Western media to label China as "challenging international law".

In doing so, the Aquino administration was the cat's paw of the United States, which was implementing its "return to the Asia-Pacific" strategy.

Globalization and multi-polarization remain irreversible and the time is gone when a superpower can dominate world affairs. In this globalized and multi-polar era, a single country cannot represent the whole of international society and so any attempts to determine world opinion and defame China will be unlikely to succeed.

It is China's consistent stance that it will not accept or participate in the unilateral arbitration case and that direct talks between the two parties involved should be held to resolve their dispute to maintain regional peace and stability. About 60 countries have openly expressed their support of this stance.

Such a stance is based on China's perception that the South China Sea issue involves complicated political and historical factors. By advocating direct talks as a way of resolving the dispute between the parties concerned, China aims to maintain international rule of law and bring conduct under the framework of the international legal bodies.