China vows 'decisive' response to South China Sea provocations

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang ©AFP

China has pledged to give a decisive response to any provocations in the South China Sea, after an international tribunal declared invalid Beijing’s claims to the disputed waters.

"If anyone wants to take any provocative action against China's security interests based on the award, China will make a decisive response," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing on Thursday. 

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The contested waters are believed to be rich in oil and gas.
On Tuesday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled against China and sided with the Philippines in a case brought by the latter.
The court ruled that China’s expansive claim to sovereignty over the waters or its resources had no legal basis and accused Beijing of violating the Philippines' economic and sovereign rights.

This aerial image taken from a C-130 transport plane shows a general view of Taiping Island during a visit by journalists to the island, in South China Sea on March 23, 2016. ©AFP

China has rejected the judgment, saying its “territorial sovereignty and marine rights” in the seas would not be affected by the ruling.
On Wednesday, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin described the ruling as waste paper, emphasizing that his country had "the right" to establish an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea.
The Chinese official also warned that the US and its regional allies not to "turn the South China Sea into a cradle of war".
Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the US, also said that the ruling by The Hague-based tribunal will “certainly intensify conflicts and even confrontation."
The dispute has at times drawn in extra-regional countries, particularly the US.
China accuses the US of interfering in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.
Washington, in turn, accuses Beijing of carrying out what it calls a land reclamation program in the South China Sea by constructing artificial islands in the disputed areas.
Senior officials in Beijing have reiterated that they are still committed to dialogue with other parties to the long-running row over the South China Sea.