The Chinese government has vowed to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty in the South China Sea and said it reserved the right to set up an air defense zone, a day after an international tribunal ruled China had no legal basis for its expansive claims in the region.
“On whether China will set up an air defense zone over the South China Sea, what we have to make clear first is that China has the right to,” Liu Zhenmin, the vice foreign minister, told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.
“But whether we need one in the South China Sea depends on the level of of threats we face.”
US officials have previously said that they feared China may respond to the ruling by declaring an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea, a move that would sharply escalate tensions in the disputed territory.
Liu also said that the Philippines was to blame for “stirring up trouble”, as he introduced a policy paper calling the islands in the strategic sea lane “China’s inherent territory”.
His comments came a day after, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected China’s claims to economic rights across large swaths of the South China Sea.
The tribunal also found that Beijing had aggravated the seething regional dispute and violated the Philippines’ maritime rights by building up artificial islands that destroyed coral reefs, and by disrupting fishing and oil exploration.
“There was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’,” the Court said on Tuesday, referring to a demarcation line on a 1947 map of the sea.