China holds military exercises in south China Sea / 中國今起南海軍演3日 官媒續批仲裁案　　　　　　　　　　

After the Hague's South China Sea Arbitration ruling, the US Chief of Naval Operations, John Richardson visited China for the first time. He met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Shengli, and hoped to resolve regional tensions caused by the arbitration. Starting from today, China will begin military exercises for three days in the South China Sea. Regional tensions have not been resolved as China refused to acknowledge the result of the Hague's South China Sea Arbitration ruling. From July 19 to July 22, China will close off a part of the South China Sea for military exercises. The US Chief of Naval Operations, John Richardson visited China on July 17. The US and Japan's navy performed a MCM exercise together. China strongly criticized the Hague's ruling on its official media. It pointed out that the South China Sea Arbitration tribunal was only a temporary tribunal, and had nothing to do with the International Court of Justice or the UN. Moreover, there were only 5 arbitrators, which is a small number of people when compared to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea's 21 judges. China also questioned the former president of the ITLOS Yanai Shunji's rightist position, which it believes led to an unfavorable result for China. China believes that the 4 European arbitrators appointed by the Japanese judge do not fully understand the South China Sea issue. In addition, China castigated the expert witnesses' ability, saying that many shifted their ground as they previously claimed Taiping Island is an island. ==MYRON H. NORDQUIST, Associate Professor of the Law of Sea at Virginia University== I don't know how with a straight face they could have said the Taiping was not an island. I mean, they may even made their argument that the military don't count as humans. That's not human habitation. However, some do not agree with China's opinions. They think that Yanai is not to be blamed, since China refused to participate in the arbitration. Moreover, the Philippines paid the arbitration fee in advance, so that the result of the arbitration would not be affected. Last but not least, all arbitrators are experts in the law of the sea. If the arbitrators were Asians, it might have caused a greater controversy. TRANSLATED BY：ARIEL HSIEH 上星期南海仲裁出爐後，中國堅持不接受不承認，區域僵局依舊難解。中國從19號起連續三天，將在海南島東南沿海進行軍演，禁止船隻靠近。而在美國海軍軍令部長李察遜17號訪中的同一天，美日海軍也聯合舉行反水雷演習。 中國也加大力度在官方媒體上抨擊仲裁案的諸多弊端。首先指出國際法庭是由來自各大洲的15名法官組成，國際海洋法法庭更有多達21名法官，都是聯合國經費運作。而南海仲裁庭只是臨時的仲裁機構，跟國際法庭或聯合國毫無關係，而且只有五名仲裁員，除了菲律賓指定的德國籍法官外，由於中國拒絕參與，其他仲裁員，都由政治立場明顯偏右的日本籍庭長柳井俊二指定，質疑四名歐洲仲裁員不懂南海問題。而仲裁庭的2600萬歐元開銷都是菲律賓買單，中國外交部副部長劉振民直指他們收錢辦事，中方還抨擊仲裁員跟菲國提出的專家證人，都在庭上出現了髮夾彎的立場轉變，過去主張南海有多個島嶼，太平島是島，卻都莫名其妙都改了口。 ==美國維吉尼亞大學海洋法副教授 諾奎斯特== 我不知道他們 如何能一本正經的說 太平不是個島 也許他們認為島上軍人不算人 不算是人類居住 不過也有人認為，中國從一開始拒絕仲裁，才是造成柳井俊二一手挑選仲裁員的主因，菲律賓按規定支付仲裁庭費用，事先就付清，不致影響仲裁結果，且仲裁員都是精通國際海洋法的專家，如果當中多了亞洲籍人士，也可能引發更大的爭議。話說到底，這份仲裁雖然有約束力，但沒有執行力，過去不遵守仲裁的案例很多，最終比的還是國力與拳頭。 記者 綜合報導