China holds firm on sea dispute
Print Edition
CHINA yesterday dismissed the United States’ views on the South China Sea as incomplete and lacking in evidence.
The dismissal came after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in his keynote speech at the ongoing Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that his country will continue to fly, sail and operate in the region wherever international law allows.
He also called for “an immediate and lasting halt to land reclamation by all claimants” in the South China Sea.
“China — in the past 18 months — has reclaimed more than 2,000 acres, more than all other claimants combined and more than in the entire history of the region,” Carter said.
A Chinese military official, however, said Carter’s criticisms were “groundless and not constructive.”
“Freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is not at all an issue because the freedom has never been affected,” said Senior Colonel Zhao Xiaozhuo from China’s Academy of Military Science.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said yesterday that “China’s construction in the South China Sea is within its sovereign rights and its activities are lawful, reasonable and justified.”
She urged the United States to keep its promise to hold a neutral position on the sovereignty issue and to stop harming regional peace and stability.
The South China Sea is not a US concern, so it should act prudently and respect efforts by countries in the region to maintain peace and stability, she said.
Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of China’s National Defense Ministry, said “freedom of navigation should be for the benefit of economic development, not sending military aircraft and vessels everywhere.”
In an interview released over the weekend by the Wall Street Journal, Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States, questioned America’s actions, saying “what the US is doing has given rise to a lot of questions in China.”
Washington on Friday accused China of deploying two pieces of artillery on one of its artificial islands in the sea.
Carter said in Singapore that the US “will support the right of claimants to pursue international legal arbitration and other peaceful means to resolve these disputes.”
Huang Jing, director of the Center on Asia and Globalization at the National University of Singapore, said on Friday that China has always been a “defender of world peace,” and that, to certain extent, the South China Sea issue had been “sensationalized” by some countries in and outside the region.
The most effective way to solve it is through negotiation between concerned parties, and any attempt to introduce outside forces will only complicate the issue, he said.
The dispute was “hyped up” in 2010 when the US announced its “pivot to Asia” strategy.
“The issue has been there for decades. Why is it now a big deal?” he said.
The reason, he said, is because of China’s rising influence and status on the world stage.
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