China vows ‘decisive response’ to sea provocations

Beijing / AFP

China warned on Thursday of a “decisive response” to provocations in the South China Sea, as it faced mounting pressure to accept an international tribunal’s ruling against its claims to most of the strategically vital waters.
The Philippines, which launched the legal challenge, called for China to respect the decision and defied Chinese objections by saying it would raise the issue at a summit of Asian and European leaders in Mongolia starting on Friday.
China, which had already vowed to ignore Tuesday’s verdict by the UN-backed tribunal in The Hague, responded with another firm warning that it was in no mood to back down.
“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. China claims nearly all of the sea — which is of immense military importance and through which about $5 trillion worth of shipping trade passes annually — even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.
China justifies its claims by saying it was the first to have discovered, named and exploited the sea, and outlines its territory using a vague map made up of nine dashes that emerged in the 1940s.

‘Unlawful’ China
However the tribunal sided with the Philippines in ruling China’s claimed historic rights to resources within the nine-dash map had no legal basis.
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.
China had done so by interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration within the exclusive zone, as well as by building artificial islands there.
China has in recent years undertaken giant land reclamation works in the Spratlys archipelago, one of the biggest island groups in the sea which partly falls within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The US and Australia were among Philippine allies this week to quickly call on China to respect the ruling, pointing out it was legally binding.
The Philippines had initially refrained from asking China to abide by the verdict — in line with new President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to achieve a “soft landing” with Beijing on the issue.
The Philippines filed the legal challenge against China in 2013 under Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino. Relations between Beijing and Manila plummeted over the row.
Duterte, who took office on June 30, has said he wants better relations with China and to attract Chinese investment for major infrastructure projects.