As tensions simmer ahead of an international tribunal’s ruling on Beijing’s claims over the South China Sea, a veteran Chinese foreign policy maker is sending a stern warning about putting the verdict into action.
Dai Bingguo, a retired official who spent nearly two decades at the center of China’s foreign-policy making, urged the U.S. in a speech Tuesday to scale back its “heavy-handed intervention” in the disputed waters and accused Washington of sowing discord and provoking Beijing.
“The temperature of the South China Sea is now high enough,” Mr. Dai told a gathering of Chinese and U.S. think tankers in Washington. “If such momentum went unchecked, accidents could happen and the South China Sea might sink into chaos and so might the entire of Asia.”
Mr. Dai’s comments come a week before an arbitration tribunal in The Hague is due to issue its ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Philippines in 2013 to challenge Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea. The ruling is widely expected to rule unfavorably against China, whose claims in the disputed waters overlap with those of Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines, a U.S. ally.
