Angry China warns rivals

Beijing : China warned rivals yesterday against turning the South China Sea into a “cradle of war” and threatened an air defence zone there, after its claims to the strategically vital waters were declared invalid.

The surprisingly strong and sweeping ruling by a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague provided powerful diplomatic ammunition to the Philippines, which filed the challenge, and other claimants in their decades-long disputes with China over the resource-rich waters.

China reacted furiously to Tuesday’s decision, insisting it had historical rights over the sea while launching a volley of thinly veiled warnings at the United States and other critical nations.

“Do not turn the South China Sea into a cradle of war,” vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters in Beijing, as he described the ruling as waste paper.

Liu also said China had “the right” to establish an air defence identification zone over the sea, which would give the Chinese military authority over foreign aircraft.

A similar zone set up in 2013 in the East China Sea riled Japan, the United States and its allies.

“Whether we need to set up one in the South China Sea depends on the level of threat we receive,” he said.

“We hope other countries will not take the chance to blackmail China.”

The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, was even more blunt.

“It will certainly intensify conflicts and even confrontation,” Cui said in Washington on Tuesday.