China refutes Philippines' South China Sea accusation (2)

As approved by the two governments, China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Philippine National Oil Company signed an agreement for joint marine seismic undertaking on certain areas of the South China Sea, which later included Vietnam.

The three parties had carried out joint operations, making positive contributions to stability, cooperation and development of the South China Sea, she said.

"However, it is regrettable that over recent years, the Philippines has changed its attitude and approach in handling the issue, went back on its consensus with China, broke its commitment in the DOC, cast aside the framework of dialogue upheld by a majority of countries, refused to cooperate, aggravated the situation and set off the incident of the Huangyan Island last year by harassing Chinese civilians with warships. This cast a shadow over China-Philippines relations and peace and stability of the South China Sea," the spokeswoman said.

The Philippines publicly criticized China during the recently held ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meetings, regardless of the consensus among ASEAN countries, which reasonably drew refutation from China, Hua said.

"It is difficult for China to understand why the Philippines continue to play up the issue of the South China Sea, distort the facts and smear China," she noted.

"The overall situation of the South China Sea is stable," Hua said, noting that China and ASEAN countries have consensus on upholding peace and stability of the South China Sea.

Hua stressed that China will stay committed to safeguarding peace and stability of the South China Sea with maximum good will and sincerity.

China has never closed the door to negotiation and consultation with the Philippines in the hope of improving and developing bilateral relations, she added.

China urges the Philippines to correct its erroneous actions, make a positive response to China's suggestions in March 2010 and January 2012 respectively on establishing the Sino-Philippine regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues and resuming the Sino-Philippine mechanism on trust-building measures, and come back to the correct track of resolving disputes through bilateral negotiations, said the spokeswoman.