China To "Crush" Foreign Encroachment In SCS, Top General Brags

China will "crush" any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory, including the South China Sea (SCS), a senior Beijing military official declared during a defense forum, Ludovic Ehret reported for Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Recently, Chinese vessels have been involved in several high-profile confrontations with Philippine ships in waters that Beijing claims almost entirely, despite an international court ruling that its claim lacks legal basis. I Photo: CGTN

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated over China's increasingly assertive stance in disputed maritime regions, including the SCS.

Recently, Chinese vessels have been involved in several high-profile confrontations with Philippine ships in waters that Beijing claims almost entirely, despite an international court ruling that its claim lacks legal basis.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled in July 2016 that China’s historical claims to the area were groundless. Instead of adhering to the ruling, as required by the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), which China signed in 1982, Beijing dismissed it as a mere "scrap of paper."

Speaking to a small group of journalists, including AFP, at the Xiangshan Forum, Chinese army Lt. Gen. He Lei said, "We hope that the SCS will remain a sea of peace."

However, he added, "if the U.S. moves its pawns behind the scenes, if it pushes countries to the front line, or if the U.S. itself ends up on the front line, then we in the Chinese People's Liberation Army... will never have any patience."

China has not produced any official documents to support its sovereignty claims over the SCS.

It remains geographically distant from most of the maritime features it claims, relying on a sketch of the original 11-dash line drawn by Kuomintang cartographers in 1947, two years before the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established.