Alwaght- Beijing is reportedly planning to launch an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea, the timing of which will depend on United States “provocations.”
A source close to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) told the South China Morning Post daily that security conditions in the region, namely the US military presence, would define the timing of the ADIZ declaration. Billions of dollars of trade passes annually through the area, which is subject to rival claims.
A source close to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) told the South China Morning Post daily that security conditions in the region, namely the US military presence, would define the timing of the ADIZ declaration.
“If the US military keeps making provocative moves to challenge China’s sovereignty in the region, it will give Beijing a good opportunity to declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea,” the source told the newspaper.
The revelation came ahead of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, a security forum attended by defense officials from various nations, including Deputy Chief of the PLA General Staff Department Admiral Sun ¬Jianguo and US Secretary of ¬Defense Ash Carter. Disputes in the South China Sea are expected to head the agenda of the three-day event, which starts on Friday.
Tensions have run high between Washington and Beijing over a reclamation project in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands. Beijing has various territorial disputes in the area – which is rich in deposits of natural resources – with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Beijing has called the US involvement in the dispute the “greatest” threat to the region.
Last month Beijing asked the US to stop its surveillance activities near China after two of its fighter jets carried out what the Pentagon labeled an "unsafe" intercept of a US military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea.
Several day ago, a high ranking Chinese government official issued a stern warning to the United States that it should stop its provocative mission in the South China Sea.
Speaking to a small group of reporters in Beijing on 19th May, a high-ranking Chinese official made his warning clear: The US should not provoke China in the South China Sea without expecting retaliation. "The Chinese people do not want to have war, so we will be opposed to [the] U.S. if it stirs up any conflict," said Liu Zhenmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Of course, if the Korean War or Vietnam War are replayed, then we will have to defend ourselves."
