China warns of ‘decisive response’ over South China Sea provocations

“If our security is being threatened, of course we have the right to demarcate a zone”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping likewise declared on the same day that China “will never accept” the tribunal’s arbitration.

Meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday that he hoped Vietnam would together with China jointly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, state news agency Xinhua reported.

He said China would consider an air defense zone that requires foreign aircraft to notify China before flying in designated areas, depending on perceived threats to China’s claims.

“With military activity reaching unprecedented levels in the South China Sea, there is no guarantee that an escalating war of words will not transform into something more”, it said.

At the same time, administration officials took pains to downplay any tensions between the United States and China. China’s Ministry of Defence stated earlier that the ruling would not affect China’s sovereignty and interests in the South China Sea. “It will certainly intensify conflicts and even confrontation”, Cui said in Washington.

The tribunal has no power of enforcement, making the ruling’s impact uncertain.

China was “the first to have discovered, named, and explored and exploited” islands in the sea and their surrounding waters, the document said.

By unilaterally initiating arbitration over territorial disputes, China says, the Philippines violated its right to choose means of dispute settlement of its own will as a State Party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Mr Duterte has adopted a more conciliatory approach than his predecessor Benigno Aquino, saying the Philippines would be willing to share natural resources with China in contested areas if the tribunal ruled in its favour.

In a spokesman’s statement, the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government “takes note of the arbitration”, adding that it hopes the South China Sea issue “will be resolved through peaceful and creative diplomatic efforts”.

Thus, he said, it lacks authority and credibility, and its ruling is null and void.

A new ADIZ in the South China Sea could provoke a similar response. This followed President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to achieve a “soft landing” with the Philippines’ much more powerful Asian neighbour.

“Let’s be magnanimous in victory”. “In very delicate matters like this you can not be provocative in statements”.

In this Tuesday, July 12, 2016 photo, workers chat near a map of South China Sea on display at a maritime defense educational facility in Nanjing in east China’s Jiangsu province. China has long wanted to negotiate directly. The Philippines understands this point very well and this is why it should want to seek bilateral talks with China after the ruling.