On Thursday, Harris said the recent developments on the man-made islands would not stop the Navy from deploying an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea.
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China’s top diplomat said Thursday Beijing has “legitimate national security” concerns over the potential deployment of an advanced USA missile shield to South Korea in response to growing nuclear provocations from North Korea – but Chinese leaders also respect that it will be up to Seoul to “make a final decision” on the matter.
China contends it won’t be bound by the ruling that the Hague-based tribunal will deliver this year.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the decision by Philippine leaders to lodge a case with the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague was “irresponsible to the Filipino people and the future of the Philippines”.
“We would ignore it, just like we’ve ignored the ADIZ that they’ve put in place in the East China Sea…”
Australia is not taking sides in the competing territorial claims in the South China Sea and has resisted USA pressure to risk angering China by sailing near one of the Beijing-controlled islands in the Paracel chain.
“I believe that we need to do them and we need to do them on a regular basis”, Harris said.
China claims that almost all of the South China Sea is now and has always been sovereign Chinese water and that neighboring countries who control some of its islets, reefs and shoals do so illegally.
Mr Abbott said China’s creation of artificial islands in the South China Sea came at a massive environmental cost, fortified disputed territory and restricted freedom of navigation.
China would send warships to participate, he said, but did not say how many or what kind. “In my opinion, China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea”.
The Philippines is one of China’s major rivals in the South China Sea and has taken Beijing to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to contest China’s constructions in the Spratly Islands, which Manila claims.
China’s defence ministry says the commander of US forces in the Pacific smeared China while seeking additional defence funding from the US Congress, in the latest accusation in a war of words accompanying rising tensions in the South China Sea. “Improved radar coverage is an important piece of the puzzle-along with improved air defenses and greater reach for Chinese aircraft-toward China’s goals of establishing effective control over the sea and airspace throughout the nine-dash line”.
“We should exercise our right to freedom of navigation wherever global law permits, because this is not something that the USA should have to police on its own”, Abbott will reportedly say.
A total of $5.3 trillion trade transits the sea, including over $1 trillion in US trade.
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“There’s no difference between China’s deployment of defense facilities on its own territory and the defense installation by the United States in Hawaii”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
