China denounces provocative talk by US and Japan
Print Edition
CHINA has denounced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for remarks it says are provocative and not helpful for regional peace and stability.
Lieutenant General Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of the general staff of the People’s Liberation Army, told an Asian security forum in Singapore he had planned to elaborate on China’s approach to common security and cooperative security in Asia but had to move away from his text to respond.
“My feeling is that Mr Abe and Mr Hagel were singing notes in chorus. They were corroborating and colluding and using the opportunities to speak first at the Shangri-La Dialogue to take the initiative to provoke and challenge China,” he told military generals, defense chiefs and scholars.
Hagel had criticized China as being the one taking “unilateral actions” on the South China Sea and said the United States would maintain its leadership in the Asia Pacific and defend the interests of its allies. He also repeated US concerns for freedom of navigation and respect for international law in the South China Sea.
Wang said: “He made a speech to stoke instability and encourage picking fights in the Asia Pacific. The attitude there is not constructive.”
No disputes or incidents have been initiated by China over a long period of time on sovereign and maritime issues and China has always had to respond, he said.
On Friday night, Abe delivered a keynote speech full of thinly-veiled comments aimed at China. He talked about how he intended to revise and push beyond the limit of Japan’s pacifist constitution that was put in place after World War II and how he intended to go for a larger role for Japan in Asian security by promoting the idea of “proactive peace” and giving patrol ships to the Philippines and Vietnam to support their maritime claims.
Wang said everybody could see that Abe’s remarks, which he said were full of innuendoes, were aimed at China.
“Hagel was being quite frank. He just bluntly and openly criticized China, albeit baseless. But I rather like his way of talking. If you want to say something, it’s better to just say it directly,” Wang said.
‘Not acceptable’
“As a prime minister, Abe was invited to the Shangri-La Dialogue by the organizers to give a speech. He could have upheld the goal of dialogue facilitation set for the forum to advance peace and security in the Asia Pacific. He could have contributed constructive suggestions but, opposite to the spirit of the dialogue meeting, he initiated incidents and stoked disputes,” Wang said. “I think this is not acceptable, and this is not in line with the spirit of the dialogue meeting.”
Wang said that China never took the initiative at the Shangri- La Dialogue to incite disputes.
“If you also look at what the United States and Japan did, it was not difficult to see who took the initiative to pick fights and incite disputes and conflicts. From the speeches of Abe and Hagel, we can see who on earth are aggressive. It is the United States and Japan corroborating with each other, and not China,” he said.
The Shangri-La Dialogue, officially the Asian Security Summit organized by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a London-based think thank, gathers defense and military representatives and scholars from 27 countries in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.
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