It is significant for the Philippines’ position and diplomacy in the South China Sea (SCS) dispute that at the United Nations, Beijing’s candidate in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea received more abstentions than any other candidate. Around the world, there is widespread perception that China’s claims over almost all of the waterway are written on water and will not stand and that its militarization of islands and reefs in the SCS violate international law. It may have seemed sometimes that the rightful cause could never be heard and that the great issues in the sea dispute would always be muted amid all the noise and excitement about China’s spectacular ascendance as an economic and military power.

China's candidate in UN law of the sea tribunal falls short. (2020, September 14). The Manila Times, p. A4.