Beijing scrambles & provokes over South China Sea to prevent US-Japan naval exercise

Describing the US and Japan as "paper tigers" and "eunuchs," China is ready for war on the issue of the South China Sea, claiming 90% of the area. China's state media on Thursday said that the military should remain ready for counter-attack if American warships hold exercises near the islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea to enforce the UN-backed tribunal's verdict. An editorial titled 'Blustering US a paper tiger in S China Sea' in the state-run Global Times said that the US had voiced the strongest support for the verdict against China on Tuesday by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The US had said that the award was legally binding. The tabloid said that on the contrary the attitude of the Philippines, which filed the petition against China at the tribunal, is relatively mild as it called for restraint. It said, "An old Chinese saying goes 'the emperor doesn't worry but his eunuch does,' meaning the outsider is more anxious than the player. In this case, Washington and Tokyo are the worrying eunuchs," it said. "The People's Liberation Army should enhance its military deployment in the waters of the Nansha Islands (Spratly islands) and be fully prepared to counter-attack if the US makes provocations," it said. "We do not wish for any direct confrontation or friction between the military powers... But if Washington insists on doing so, we will never flinch," the editorial said. It said many Chinese scholars believe that after the final award, the issue would gradually cool down. If there are no big moves from Manila, Washington and Tokyo, the case will "literally become nothing but a piece of paper," it said. The strongly-worded editorial came as China asserted that it would not abide by the verdict, which quashed its claims on parts of the South China Sea on the basis of historic rights. China on Wednesday flew two civilian aircraft to assert its claims to the artificial islands built in the disputed area. It successfully tested two new airfields on the disputed islands with civil flights a day after an international tribunal struck down Beijing's claims over the region. China claims almost all of the South China Sea over which the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have rival claims.