China warned its rivals on Wednesday against turning the South China Sea into a “cradle of war” and threatened to create an air defense zone, after its claims to the strategically vital waters were declared invalid. Just an hour after the historical decision that disapproves China’s claim to the controversial South China Sea, The People’s Daily published an editorial accusing the United States for manipulating the worldwide arbitration tribunal. China Sea arbitration: “A US-led conspiracy behind the farce” has slammed former Philippine President Aquino III for offering Washington a good excuse and easy approach to return to the region.
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“We do not claim an inch of land that does not belong to us, but we won’t give up any patch that is ours”, the newspaper said, adding: “China, of course, will not accept such downright political provocations”.
However, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling on Tuesday in favor of the Philippines’ claims in the disputed South China Sea has had an impact on the two countries. China has called Philippine claims of sovereignty “baseless” and has said that Chinese fishing boats have been harassed and attacked by the Philippines around the Spratly islands. Liu said China has the right to declare South China Sea region as its air defence zone and control the movement of flights because the area belonged to it.
If such an ADIZ were to be imposed, China would require all aircraft entering the designated airspace to identify themselves. The UN tribunal’s award in the South China Sea case is a template for appreciating the profoundly egalitarian aspects of worldwide law.
A day after rejecting the ruling by an global tribunal denying China’s rights over South China Sea, Taiwan on Wednesday sent a warship to patrol the disputed region.
The tribunal ruled China’s claimed historical rights and nine-dash map had no legal basis.
Arthur Ding, a military expert based at Taiwan’s National Chengchi university, said: “China will be watching closely the reaction of other countries – particularly Vietnam”.
“Vietnam occupies the biggest number of islands or islets in the South China Sea and has the biggest area of overlapping maritime claims with China”, Gu said. China’s Ministry of Defence stated earlier that the ruling would not affect China’s sovereignty and interests in the South China Sea.
Like their State Department counterparts, White House officials called for restraint and also stressed that the US-China relationship extends beyond disagreements in the South China Sea.
China is further urging the U.S.to “stop illegal arbitration and meddling with the South China Sea issue”. With a rusty navy the Philippines had already been shooed away from Scarborough Shoal, Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and other rocky features in the SCS by China.
China nonchalantly dredged artificial islands, militarised them and used these as beachheads to illegally extend its exclusive economic zone in a brazen territorial grab. For China, which sought to challenge the influence of the United States in the region, the ruling is a setback.
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Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay says he will discuss at the Asia-Europe summit starting this week “the need for parties to respect the recent decision of the arbitral tribunal”.
