To that matter, Wang said China does not approve, accept or participate in the case because it goes against the principle of arbitration, which requires agreement between the parties concerned. He did, however, say that there was mutual concern with respect to maritime issues.
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China has looked on warily as the US and Vietnam have steadily strengthened their relationship in recent years, in line with growing Vietnamese concern over aggressive Chinese moves to assert its South China Sea maritime claims.
“The two countries share a lot of common interests but it is most important for [the US] not to interfere in China’s internal affairs”, said Li, who also served as China’s ambassador to the United States from 1998 to 2001.
Japan is not a claimant in the South China Sea dispute, and has repeatedly been advised by China to refrain from becoming involved in the conflict.
“According to the related Chinese authorities, the US allegation is not true”, Hong said.
Two Chinese tactical aircraft carried out an “unsafe” intercept of a United States military aircraft on May 17, the Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday. “We urge the U.S.to immediately stop spying activities and prevent such events from happening again”, he said.
Another Chinese intercept took place in 2014 when a Chinese fighter pilot flew acrobatic maneuvers around a U.S. spy plane. It said the USA plane was conducting routine operations in global airspace.
Even as China has reportedly expressed concern over this, the deployment also comes close on the heels of the United States and India holding their first Maritime Security Dialogue on May 16 to discuss “Asia-Pacific maritime challenges, naval cooperation, and multilateral engagement”, according to the United States embassy in New Delhi. The 24 USA air crew members were held for 11 days until Washington apologised for the incident.
“There were two Chinese aircraft that approached and our air crew felt that the approach was not conducted in the safest – a safe and professional manner”, Cook said. The U.S. vessels have made sure to sail inside of 12 nautical miles-the zone of exclusive territorial waters-to let Beijing know that it doesn’t recognize China’s claims.
The Asian giant claims sovereignty on nearly all of the South China Sea that is disputed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Zhao Xiaozhuo, a researcher at the Center on China-America Defense Relations at the PLA Academy of Military Science, said it would take a long time for the two countries to tackle the security issues.
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A point is to be noted that in April 2001, an intercept of a U.S. spy plane by a Chinese fighter jet resulted in a collision that killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing at a base on China’s Hainan Island.
