Beijing warns against conflict
China yesterday warned rivals against turning the South China Sea into a "cradle of war" and threatened an air defence zone there, after its claims to the strategically vital waters were declared invalid.
The surprisingly strong and sweeping ruling by a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague provided powerful diplomatic ammunition to the Philippines, which filed the challenge, and other claimants in their decades-long disputes with China over the resource-rich waters.
China reacted furiously to Tuesday's decision, insisting it had historical rights over the sea while launching a volley of thinly veiled warnings at the United States and other critical nations.
"Do not turn the South China Sea into a cradle of war," vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters in Beijing, as he described the ruling as waste paper.
Liu also said China had "the right" to establish an air defence identification zone over the sea, which would give the Chinese military authority over foreign aircraft.
"Whether we need to set up one in the South China Sea depends on the level of threat we receive," he said. "We hope other countries will not take the chance to blackmail China."
The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, was even more blunt. "It will certainly intensify conflicts and even confrontation," Cui said in Washington on Tuesday.
And the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said yesterday that China was prepared to take "all measures necessary" to protect its interests.
The Philippines, under new President Rodrigo Duterte, declined to celebrate the verdict. "We have to be magnanimous in victory," Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay told reporters in Manila yesterday.
"In very delicate matters like this you cannot be provocative in statements. We urge everybody including China to exercise restraint and sobriety."
Taiwan, which was another loser in the verdict as its claims are very similar to those of China, sent a warship yesterday to the sea to protect its claims.
Indonesia also announced it would sharply strengthen security around its islands in the sea, where there have been clashes with Chinese vessels recently.
China used deadly force to seize control of the Paracel Islands from South Vietnam in 1974, and Johnson Reef from a united Vietnam in 1988.
China faced immediate pressure to abide by the ruling from Western powers, which insist they have legitimate interests in the dispute because of the need to maintain "freedom of navigation" in waters that host more than $5 trillion in shipping trade annually.
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