China accuses Philippines of ‘flagrantly infringing’ on sovereignty in seabed claim

Beijing accused Manila of “flagrantly infringing” on Chinese sovereignty and undermining regional peace after the Philippines formally presented its bid to the United Nations this week for extended seabed rights in the South China Sea.The rebuttal, issued by China’s mission to the UN on Thursday, followed Manila’s presentation before the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) on Tuesday and Wednesday.Beijing said the filing violated its sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the disputed waters, and urged the 21-member commission not to consider it under its rules of procedure.It also denounced Manila’s bid to invoke the submission “as a pretext to hype up” the 2016 South China Sea arbitral award, which struck down China’s expansive maritime claims. Beijing has dismissed that ruling as “illegal, null and void”.Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all the islands and rock features in the South China Sea. Some of its territorial claims in the resource-rich waterway overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.Malaysia’s mission to the UN has also rejected the Philippine submission, citing overlapping maritime claims.