China Rejects South China Sea Ruling
ASHER: China is refusing to accept a court verdict, saying it has no legal basis to claim contested waters in the South China Sea. The ruling is viewed as a decisive win for the Philippines. But it could heighten tensions in the region. I want to show you this map, because this map actually shows the complicated, very complicated, I should say, set of claims in the area. China's claims are in the red. That extends way beyond the mainland. Philippines claims is in the yellow. These disputed area is rich in resources for fishing, oil, and gas, and it's also a very crucial trade route. That's why so many countries are claiming it. Jamie Metzl is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former Executive Vice President at the Asia Society. Jamie, thank you so much for being with us. How will China be bound by this ruling?</s>JAMIE METZL, SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: They're bound by international law, but as you know, Zain, that doesn't mean so much. So the ruling is against them. They certainly have egg on their chin. It makes life more difficult. But they have also claimed these four what they're calling islands, but what the international law calls rocks, in the South China Sea. They've built runways and essentially fortresses on them. It's bad for China, but they're still holding territory that they didn't previously possess.</s>ASHER: It's bad for China, but here's what I don't understand. If they continue to violate the sovereign rights of other countries, what specific consequences will there be for them?</s>METZL: That's a general question about international law. Certainly it would be bad reputationally for them. Certainly it will harm them in the eyes of other countries that have a greater respect for international law. But there isn't an enforcement mechanism, often, for international law. Certainly for the holding of this tribunal. That's the crux of the problem. It's binding international law, but there's nobody available to enforce it. It's certainly bad for China. It's a big loss for China. But now it will move from the realm of law to the realm of geopolitics.</s>ASHER: Rather than continue to fight this, do you think China might end up negotiating some kind of settlement, do you think, is that possible?</s>METZL: The question is what a settlement might look like. I think it's quite likely that they will negotiate a freeze. But it's in their interest to negotiate a freeze, because they've been building so aggressively on these rocks. They now have four extended runways that are militarized. If they have a freeze, they are going to freeze in place a tremendous benefit that they never had. That's one of the things in your map, it showed just how outlandish China's claim is. They made this kind of crazy claim, then they started building these basically military installations on parts of the open sea that they previously had no claim on. And now they will pull back, I'm sure, and negotiate a freeze, but those military installations aren't going anywhere.</s>ASHER: I'm just curious, what sort of evidence about The Hague look at before reaching this conclusion or this ruling?</s>METZL: It's very technical. They sent people out, they looked at historical records. The technical issue is whether these reefs and rocks are above the water or below the water at high tide. And if they're islands as China claims, then they would not only have a 12-mile sovereign zone around them but a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. And that's what the tribunal looked at, their experts looked at. That was completely and categorically rejected. They looked at historical records. They looked at the islands, at the topography and they came to the conclusion that none of these rocks and reefs were in fact islands as China has claimed. Meaning that China's claim is completely illegitimate in international law.</s>ASHER: All right, Jamie Metzl, live for us there, thank you very much, we appreciate that. Rivals no more. Bernie Sanders finally throws his support behind Hillary Clinton for president. Details coming up.