He reiterated China’s position that its construction of artificial islands in the sea was created to “provide public service” to the region by helping ships, fishing craft and disaster relief efforts.
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The Community declaration was signed by leaders of the 10- member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur, this year’s host of the group’s annual summit.
China has been constructing facilities in 7 disputed features in the South China Sea. The facilities include runways and military outposts.
Taiwan, which he described as a Chinese “province”, controls the largest island – Taiping, also known as Itu Aba – and China has seven, Liu said.
In a speech at the CEO forum of the Apec summit ahead of the leaders’ meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping did not directly mention the territorial disputes. China’s presence threatens the flow of worldwide trade, as its expansion of military facilities in the region appears to serve the hegemonic interests of China and not the general welfare of the global community. “One should never link the military facilities with efforts to militarize the South China Sea”, Liu added.
He noted that in Peninsular Malaysia, “we have about a hundred thousand Filipinos and they are in the engineering sector particularly in the oil and gas industry”. Although the case is in progress, its ramifications are inconsequential without the USA commitment to freedom of navigation. “Is that a trend of militarization?”
He urged the two sides to speed up talks on upgrading the China-ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA) to further enhance trade facilitation in order to achieve 1 trillion dollars in bilateral trade by 2020.
Washington has repeatedly warned that traffic through the South China Sea, a key conduit for world trade, could be threatened by China’s moves. Terrorism and disputes over the South China Sea are also on the agenda.
Aquino was skeptical of Liu’s statement about the artificial islands. Currently, China claims nearly 90 percent of the sea. [Now they say] it is open to all.
He was speaking at a business summit, held on the sidelines of a summit of Southeast Asian countries.
Aquino then turned diplomatic, expressing hope that the Chinese government was honest in its remarks. However, he appealed to nations claiming land in the area to “halt reclamation, new construction and militarisation” for “the sake of regional stability”.
In fact, China has more to lose in any military confrontation than does the United States. While solving the dispute is still the involved countries’ rights and responsibilities. The activities included a commemorative summit and the designating of 2016 as the year of education exchange between China and Asean. American forces must systematically challenge China’s self-declared Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea, and its “Nine-Dash Line” in the South China Sea, challenging China’s ability to enforce its questionable claims.
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Leaders from 18 countries including the United States, China, India, Russia, Japan and Southeast Asia who gathered for the summit issued strong calls for action after a recent spate of attacks by Islamic State in Paris, Mali and Lebanon.
