US military warned over sensitive issues
Print Edition
FAILURE to properly handle sensitive issues between the US and China could “very likely disturb and undermine” their military-to-military relations, a top Chinese official told US National Security Advisor Susan Rice yesterday.
Rice is the highest-level US official to visit Beijing since a tribunal this month issued a ruling rejecting China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
China rejected the tribunal ruling on the South China Sea as “waste paper” and asserted its right, if it chooses, to establish an Air Defence Identification Zone controlling flights over the area.
At a regional summit in Vientiane, Laos, yesterday, Southeast Asian nations avoided mentioning the ruling in a joint statement seen as a victory for China.
Rice’s trip is intended to prepare for a visit by US President Barack Obama to a G20 summit in Hangzhou in September.
In recent months Washington has sent naval vessels close to reefs and outcrops claimed by China to assert what it called “freedom of navigation,” sparking anger in China.
President Xi Jinping told Rice at a meeting yesterday that China was “strongly committed” to building good relations with the US based upon the ideas of “no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation.”
But at an earlier encounter with Rice, top Chinese official Fan Changlong, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, warned that ties between the two powers could easily fray.
“We should be honest with ourselves that deep down in this relationship we’re still faced with obstacles and challenges,” he said, adding that military ties had been “impacted by some complicated and some sensitive factors.”
“If we do not properly handle these factors it will very likely disturb and undermine this steady momentum of our military-to-military relationship,” he warned.
Rice noted that “risks of unintended consequences” of the two countries’ forces operating in ever-closer proximity had been reduced thanks to better communication and other confidence-building measures.
But despite progress, “we have challenges and differences to discuss and to manage,” she said.
In conversation with Xi, Rice stated that the US viewed its relationship with China as “the most consequential in the world today.”
“We view China’s success as being in America’s interest, given our growing interdependence,” she said.
Rice made no direct mention of the tribunal ruling. Rice is visiting China for a four-day trip that includes a stop in Shanghai to meet business leaders.
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