China will establish an international maritime judicial center to protect its national sovereignty and maritime rights, the country's Supreme People's Court announced on Sunday.  The announcement was made by China's Chief Justice Zhou Qiang in a report issued during the annual meeting of the Chinese parliament in Beijing. 

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The move comes amid a simmering diplomatic row over Beijing's assertions in the South China Sea, where China is locked in maritime and territorial disputes with a number of Southeast Asian countries.

Courts across China are working to implement the central government's strategy of building the country into a major maritime power, Zhou claimed. 

"National Sovereignty"

"We will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, maritime interests and other core interests," Zhou added. "We must improve the work of maritime courts and build an international maritime judicial center."

China has declined to participate in a case brought by the Philippines to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

The Philippines asked the tribunal in early 2013 to rule on China's extensive claims over the South China Sea based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to determine whether certain disputed reefs and atolls mostly controlled by China give Beijing the right to the waters.

Philippine officials have said that they expect the international tribunal to hand a ruling in May.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi has argued that China's refusal to participate in the arbitration hearings is in line with international law.

"The Philippines has broken ... with the practice that arbitration should be mutually agreed," Wang told reporters in a recent press briefing. "The so-called arbitration is tainted and gone astray and China is not going to humor it."

Not Just About Fish Anymore

The Chinese government has come under fire from the United States and its allies over the reclamation of an estimated 3,000 acres of land in massive dredging operations across parts of the South China Sea.  The speed and scale of the operations have alarmed other countries with interests in the region.

For generations, the South China Sea was a shared regional resource.  Fishermen from all the surrounding countries would sail its waters, pausing from time to time to gossip and trade cigarettes or food stowed aboard their fishing boats.

But then Vietnam and the Philippines began staking official claims to some parts of the busy Asian waterway, and China followed suit in a big way, asserting exclusive rights to resource-rich fishing grounds.

The US has openly challenged China's declaration of sovereignty over much of the region by conducting regular freedom of navigation and over-flight missions across the South China Sea.  In the process, the disputes over the area have become something much more complex -- and more dangerous -- than just a contest for fish.

Chinese courts processed some 16,000 maritime cases last year, the most in the world, China's Zhou said in his report, but he gave no details as to when China's special maritime judicial body will begin working, or what kind of cases it would accept.  

TagsTerritorial disputes in the South China Sea, Zhou Qiang, Chinese Supreme People's Court, South China Sea Case Permanent Court of Arbitration