China claims right to declare air defence zone

Beijing

CHINA warned it "has the right" to declare an air defence identification zone over the South China Sea as it stepped up denunciations of an international tribunal that ruled against its expansive claims in the strategic waters.

Whether Beijing set up such a zone - which would require civilian aircraft to identify themselves to military controllers - depended on "the level of threat we receive", said Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin on Wednesday.