US report on South China Sea is to mislead public, confuse right with wrong: China

After the US released a study on China's claim over South China Sea, Beijing on Thursday responded saying said that the United States report on international law is to "mislead the public, confuse right with wrong and upset the regional situation."

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin during a press briefing on Thursday said: "The study of the US side misrepresent international law to mislead the public, confuse right with wrong and upset the regional situation."

"As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), China sets great store by the Convention and earnestly observes the Convention in an rigid and responsible manner. The US refuses to join the Convention, but styles itself as the judge. It wantonly misrepresents the Convention and adopts double standards out of selfish gains. Such political manipulation is irresponsible and undermines international rule of law," the Foreign Minister Spokesperson said in a statement.

He added that China enjoys historic rights in the South China Sea. "Our sovereignty and relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea are established in the long course of history and are in line with the UN Charter, UNCLOS and other international law," Wang Wenbin said.

On Wednesday, US State Department released a study on China's South China Sea claims challenging many of Beijing's assertions in the strategically important region.

The Department's Limits in the Seas studies are a longstanding legal and technical series that examine national maritime claims and boundaries and assess their consistency with international law, according to the US State Department Press Release.

Earlier, the most recent study, the 150th in the Limits in the Seas series, concludes that China's asserts unlawful maritime claims in most of the South China Sea, including an unlawful historic rights claim is unjustifiable.

Further, China builds on the Department's 2014 analysis of the PRC's ambiguous "dashed-line" claim in the South China Sea. Since 2014, the PRC has continued to assert claims to a wide swath of the South China Sea as well as to what the PRC has termed "internal waters" and "outlying archipelagos," all of which are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.

With the release of this latest study, the United States calls again on the PRC to conform its maritime claims to international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, to comply with the decision of the arbitral tribunal in its award of July 12, 2016, in The South China Sea Arbitration, and to cease its unlawful and coercive activities in the South China Sea, read the US State Department press release.

( With inputs from ANI )

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