China says it could declare air zone over South China Sea

While introducing a policy paper in response to the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Mr Liu said the islands in the South China Sea were China’s “inherent territory” and blamed the Philippines for stirring up trouble.

The United States, which China has accused of fuelling tensions and militarising the region with patrols and exercises, said the ruling should be treated as final and binding.

Head of the US Pacific command Admiral Harry Harris in February warned that China is “clearly militarising the South China [Sea]”.

Chinese President Xi Jinping rejected the decision, saying; “China will never accept any claim or action based on those awards”.

China is “strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to” the U.S. statement, adding that it “lodged solemn representations with the U.S. side”, a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said. The Chinese government published a white paper on the same day in which it once again stressed that the sovereignty claims of the Philippines are groundless.

Chinese official media have angrily denounced the ruling of an worldwide tribunal on the South China Sea, with the Global Times saying in a hard-hitting editorial that the final verdict was “more radical and shameless” than expected. In 2013, a similar zone was put in place in the East China Sea, angering Japan, the United States and its allies.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Beijing risked reputational harm if it ignored the ruling by the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration, on a case brought by Manila, which said China had no title to the waterway. The ruling was also a victory for other claimants in their decades-long disputes with China over the resource-rich waters.

It added Beijing will “take all measures necessary” to protect its sovereignty and rights.

The Philippines’ relevant claim was groundless from the perspectives of either history or global law, said the white paper issued by the State Council Information Office. To assert its power, in recent years China has built artificial islands capable of hosting military installations in the sea. At the same time, China has branded Washington’s involvement in the dispute as the “greatest” threat to stability in the region.

It also declared that China had acted unlawfully by violating the Philippines’ sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone – waters extending 200 nautical miles from the Filipino coast. Liu admitted the ruling has caused some disturbances in China’s relationship with the Asean but it won’t be seriously hampered.

Beijing responded on Wednesday by releasing a White Paper that justifies China’s position on the South China Sea dispute with almost 150 arguments and dismisses the Philippines’ claims of sovereignty as “baseless”.