China’s Ministry of Natural Resources on Tuesday published a detailed assessment of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that directly accuses the Philippines of systematically abusing the treaty’s dispute resolution mechanisms. The document, titled “Assessment Report on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – Achievements, Positioning, and Challenges,” arrives as 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of China becoming a State Party to UNCLOS, a status it has held since 1996.
China’s Record and the Report’s Warnings
The report frames Beijing’s three-decade participation in the convention as one of faithful implementation and active contribution. According to the text, China has consistently fulfilled its obligations, describing itself as an active participant, builder, and contributor to the treaty’s institutional framework.
The assessment evaluates the convention’s historical achievements, legal nature, roles and functions, as well as its current problems and challenges. However, the tone of the report turns sharply when addressing contemporary difficulties. It warns that practices such as misinterpreting and distorting the convention’s provisions, abusing its dispute settlement procedures, and arbitrarily expanding judicial or arbitral jurisdiction have “quietly emerged.” The document states that these actions are gradually undermining the convention’s seriousness, integrity, and authority. Luo Gang, deputy director of the Law of the Sea Division at the Ministry of Natural Resources, is cited in the report’s findings.
Focus on the Philippines and the South China Sea Arbitration
The ministry specifically points to what it calls the “South China Sea Arbitration” initiated by the Philippines. The report notes that this behavior is unfolding against a backdrop where the authority of the United Nations is being challenged and the foundations of multilateralism are being eroded.
The assessment was launched amid the Philippines’ continued use of the convention to promote its illegal arbitration case, according to the ministry. The Philippines is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean, bounded by the South China Sea to the west and sharing maritime borders with several neighbors, including China to the northwest. Its islands were inhabited early by Negritos and later Austronesian peoples before Spanish colonization began after the arrival of European explorers in the sixteenth century.
The territory passed from Spanish to American control following a late nineteenth-century war and gained independence after the Second World War. The South China Sea is a body of water bordering the western Philippines where overlapping maritime claims among regional states have long produced tension.
Broader Implications for International Law and Regional Stability
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea sets international rules for maritime zones and dispute resolution, and many coastal countries became parties to it in the latter part of the twentieth century. A tribunal convened under that treaty issued a decision on a Philippine-initiated case concerning the sea, a proceeding later rejected by China as without basis.
The current Chinese assessment arrives as Beijing marks three decades since joining the convention and accuses Manila of misusing its procedures. For observers, the dispute illustrates how a treaty meant to settle sea claims peacefully can itself become a point of contention. Boundary friction in these waters affects navigation, regional stability, and the reach of international law.
The report’s release comes at a moment when multilateral institutions face mounting pressure globally, and its language suggests Beijing sees the Philippines’ arbitration push as part of a broader pattern that could weaken the legal architecture governing the world’s oceans.
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