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US
defense secretary Chuck Hagel says China has in recent months
undertaken destabilising, unilateral actions asserting its claims in the
South China Sea.
US says China’s actions in South China Sea destabilising
Hagel on Saturdaty repeated the US pledge to its strategic and economic rebalancing to Asia
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US
defense secretary Chuck Hagel says China has in recent months
undertaken destabilising, unilateral actions asserting its claims in the
South China Sea. Photo: AFP
Washington: US defense secretary Chuck Hagel
on Saturday spelled out a series of Chinese actions in parts of the
disputed South China Sea and said they were destabilising the region.
While China has said it wants a sea of peace, friendship and
cooperation, in recent months it has undertaken destabilising,
unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea, Hagel
said in prepared remarks at an annual security conference in Singapore.
It has restricted access to the Scarborough Reef; put
pressure on the long-standing Philippine presence at the Second Thomas
Shoal; begun land reclamation activities at multiple locations; and
moved an oil rig into disputed waters near the Paracel Islands off the
coast of Vietnam, Hagel said, listing for the first time Chinese
infractions in the region that are alarming Southeast Asian nations.
The stepped-up US comments follow Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s
appeal for a stronger voice from the US against China after clashes
between coast guard vessels near the rig placed in contested waters. The
Philippines, dwarfed militarily by China, has sought support from the
US and the United Nations to counter China’s encroachment into shoals
off its coast.
Under President Xi Jinping,
China has taken a more assertive approach to its territorial claims.
During a visit to Beijing in April, Hagel was told by his counterpart,
General Chang Wanquan, that China would make no compromise, no concessions in disputes with Japan and the Philippines.
Standing alongside Hagel at a briefing last month, Chang
said the Chinese military can assemble as soon as summoned, fight any
battle and win. China can’t be contained, Chang said, and the Pacific is
huge enough to hold both countries.
International order
In Singapore today, Hagel said the US will not look the
other way when fundamental principles of international order are being
challenged including moves by China to restrict overflight or freedom of
navigation.
US-China military ties have been tested after the US
justice department indicted five Chinese military officials on charges
of economic espionage linked to computer hacking of US nuclear power,
metals and solar companies. China has suspended the US-China Cyber
Working Group.
Even so, we will continue to raise cyber issues with our
Chinese counterparts, because dialogue is essential for reducing the
risk of miscalculation and escalation in cyberspace, Hagel said on
Saturday.
Speaking on Friday at the Shangri-La security forum, former Chinese deputy foreign minister Fu Ying said China and the US need to work very hard to try to understand each other.
Misread, misunderstand
There is a tendency that we misread each other, that we
misunderstand each other, said Fu, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the National People’s Congress.
Taking questions after his speech on Saturday, Hagel was quizzed by Major-General Yao Yunzhu,
director of the Center for China- America Defense Relations at the
Academy of Military Science within the People’s Liberation Army, about
the US stance over East China Sea islands claimed by both China and
Japan. Yao asked if recent US statements about the islands being covered
by its defense treaty with Japan were a threat of coercion or
intimidation.
I thought I made America’s position clear in my remarks
about the position we take on disputed territories, Hagel replied. In
fact, I think I repeated our position a number of times.
China’s map
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
has moved to toughen Japan’s defense posture in the face of the
territorial spat with China. Abe has repeatedly accused China of trying
to change the status quo by force, and on Friday reiterated offers to
Southeast Asian allies of military equipment and training.
Japan will offer its utmost support for the efforts of
the countries of Asean as they work to ensure the security of the seas
and the skies, he said in a speech at the forum, referring to the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
China claims much of the South China Sea under its nine-
dash line map, first published in 1947, which extends hundreds of miles
south from China’s Hainan Island to equatorial waters off the coast of
Borneo, taking in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Brunei,
Malaysia and the Philippines also claim parts of the sea.
‘No Victor’
Vietnam has prepared evidence for a lawsuit challenging
China’s claim and is considering the best time to file it, Dung said on
Friday in an interview.
If open conflict were to erupt in the South China Sea,
there will be no victor, Dung warned, saying that two-thirds of global
maritime trade passes through shipping lanes in the area. Everyone will
lose, he said. The whole world economy will be hurt and damaged
immeasurably.
Malaysia defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he is increasingly concerned about tensions in the waters.
However, inflamed rhetoric and mutual recrimination will
not do any country any good, he told the forum in Singapore. World War
1, he said, was started by sheer accident. That we must avoid for our
region as the world focuses in this area.
Vietnam said China rammed one of its fishing boats on 26
May near the oil rig. The sinking happened two days after Chinese
fighter jets flew within tens of meters of Japanese surveillance planes
in the East China Sea.
China blamed the boat-sinking on Vietnam and accused
Japan of infringing on a no-fly zone it set up for its first bilateral
naval exercises with Russia in the East China Sea.
Rebalance ‘reality’
Japanese and Chinese coast guard vessels have tailed one
another around the uninhabited islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and
Diaoyu in China, since Japan bought three of them from a private
Japanese owner late in 2012. Abe has not held a summit with China since
taking office almost 18 months ago.
While the US has repeatedly said its obligation to defend Japan extends to the disputed islands, US President Barack Obama said in a speech on defense policy this week that the armed forces can’t be the primary component of our leadership.
Hagel on Saturdaty repeated the US pledge to its
strategic and economic rebalancing to Asia even as crises in Europe and
the Middle East capture America’s attention.
The US remains committed to ensuring that any reductions
in US defense spending do not come at the expense of America’s
commitments in the Asia-Pacific, Hagel said. The rebalance is not a
goal, promise, or a vision it is a reality. BLOOMBERG
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