China warned its rivals yesterday against turning the South China Sea into a “cradle of war” and threatened to set up an air-defence zone in the area after its claims to the strategically vital waters were declared invalid.
The surprisingly strong and sweeping ruling by a United Nations-backed tribunal in the Hague provided powerful diplomatic ammunition to the Philippines, which had filed the challenge, and other claimants in their decades-long dispute with China over the resource-rich waters.

China reacted furiously to Tuesday’s decision, insisting on its historical rights over the sea while launching a volley of thinly veiled warnings to 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”.
“China’s aim is to turn the South China Sea into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation,” he insisted.
Liu added that China also had “the right” to establish an air-defence identification zone over the sea, which would give the Chinese military authority over foreign aircraft flying over the zone.
A similar zone set up in 2013 in the East China Sea had 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 threats 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 over the ramifications of the verdict.
“It will certainly intensify conflicts and even confrontation,” Cui said in Washington on Tuesday.
China justifies its sovereignty claims by saying it was the first to have discovered, named and exploited the sea, and outlines its claims for most of the waterway using a vague map made up of nine dashes that emerged in the 1940s.
Those claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Manila, under previous president Benigno Aquino, launched the legal case in 2013 after China took control of Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and far away from the nearest major Chinese landmass.
China has also in recent years built giant artificial islands capable of hosting military installations and airstrips in the Spratlys archipelago, one of the biggest groups of islands in the sea.
In a related matter, China Daily reported that China has successfully flight-tested routes to two new airfields on the Nansha or Spratly Islands. A Cessna CE-680 corporate jet from the Civil Aviation Administration’s Flight Inspection Centre took off from and landed on airfields built on Meiji and Zhubi reefs, the administration announced on its website.
“Data acquired from the flights show that the two new airfields are able to guarantee safe flights for commercial airliners,” the administration notice said.
“This will facilitate the transport of personnel, emergency rescue and medical aid on the Nansha Islands, and will provide new alternate airports to flights over the South China Sea.”
So far, Beijing has announced building three airfields on the Nansha Islands, as well as one on Yongxing of the Xisha Islands. Tuesday’s flights came six months after successful test flights of two commercial airliners landing on January 6 at a new airfield on Yongshu Reef in the Nansha Islands.
On April 17, a Navy patrol aircraft landed on Yongshu Reef to transport three seriously ill workers to Sanya in Hainan province for treatment. Yin Zhuo, director of the Navy’s Expert Consultation Committee of the People’s Liberation Army, said the Nansha Islands airfields will be useful in helping China conduct rescues in the South China Sea.
“China will berth large rescue ships and have rescue planes on the Nansha Islands. When there is a maritime disaster, rescue forces will quickly be on hand,” Yin said.
Huang Renwei, vice-president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said in a dialogue between Chinese and US think tanks on the South China Sea issue in Washington on July 6 that the sea has to be fully covered by radar to ensure the safe air or sea navigation. The Chinese airports will serve as safe havens for international planes when storms approach, he added.
“China’s efforts to provide public infrastructure that protects safety in the South China Sea cannot be matched by any other country,” Huang declared.