By Roy Mabasa
China is not discounting the possibility of establishing an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the volatile South China Sea depending on the “threats” it is getting in the area, a Chinese foreign ministry official said Monday night.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian
(REUTERS / CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“In the light of the air security threats China faces above relevant waters of the South China Sea, China will carefully and prudently study the relevant issue taking into account all factors,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during the ministry’s regular press briefing.
He stressed that every country has the right to establish an ADIZ and to decide whether to establish one based on the intensity of the threats that Beijing faces in air defense security.
“In the light of the air security threats China faces above relevant waters of the South China Sea, China will carefully and prudently study the relevant issue taking into account all factors,” he added.
China’s foreign ministry made this statement almost the same day when Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. insisted that he will not think twice in holding China accountable for its action and will fire diplomatic protest again an again to assert what the Philippines have won before the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague.
“I would appear in the United Nations and blast China,” Locsin said in a television interview when asked about his possible response to China’s provocation in the West Philippine Sea.