China should be on high alert after SCS verdict

TIL Desk/World/Beijing-Calling for national unity ahead of today’s verdict by an international tribunal on China’s claims in the South China Sea, state media directed its ire against US and Japan saying that Beijing should be on high alert if tensions escalate putting to test the PLA’s military strength. “The US and Japan have claimed that relevant countries, including China, should comply with the arbitration result.

They stand in sharp confrontation with China, which has announced that the award would be ‘nothing but a piece of paper’,” state-run newspaper said ahead of the verdict of the five-judge arbitral tribunal constituted Permanent Court of Arbitration adjudicating on the Philippines’ petition against China’s claims. Besides accusing China of taking control of the area around 140 miles from its coast, the Philippines’ petition asked the international tribunal to reject China’s claim to sovereignty over waters within a ‘nine-dash line’ that appears on official Chinese maps.

The U-shaped line represents China’s claims to as much as 90 per cent of the South China Sea (SCS) important for global trade and rich in natural resources, including oil deposits. China claims almost all of the SCS bit its claim is firmly contested by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan which have overlapping claims over the area.