Reuters:

What are China's next steps going to be? Will China send more military equipment to the South China Sea? And will it declare an Air Defense Identification Zone for the South China Sea? Thank you.

Liu Zhenmin:

It is legitimate for the Chinese navy to launch maritime activities in the South China Sea because the area belongs to China. But we all know that a certain country has dispatched a huge aircraft carrier fleet to the South China Sea. It is up to you to make a judgment. After the arbitration, the Chinese government has shown a clear standpoint that China will in no way observe the tribunal's award, because it is merely a pile of invalid papers which will never be observed. I kindly advise you to throw the papers concerning the arbitration into the rubbish bin, put them aside on book shelves, or put them in the archives. The disputes will eventually have to return to the table for negotiations and China hopes the Philippines to return to the track of bilateral negotiations.

As we have seen, "China Adheres to the Position of Settling Through Negotiation the Relevant Disputes Between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea" is the subject of the whitepaper. It is also the policy of the Chinese government. We hope to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea and guarantee freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with "the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" signed by China and the 10 ASEAN members. The policy has not changed and will not change. When speaking on whether China will declare an Air Defense Identification Zone, we should make it clear that China has the right to do so. The practice of declaring an Air Defense Identification Zone is not invented by China, but by some other major countries. We have declared one in the East China Sea. Whether we will declare one in the South China Sea depends on the severity of the threat we face. We are sure to have the right to declare one if our security is threatened. It is our overall calculation to decide whether we will have one. We hope that no other countries in the world will take the opportunity to threaten China. We are expecting the rest of the world to make concerted efforts with China to jointly maintain the peace and stability in the South China Sea to prevent it from becoming a combustible source for the breakout of wars. Our goal is to make South China Sea a place of peace, friendship and cooperation.