Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that the dialogue this year has a new twist – the arbitration sought by the Philippines against China regarding the South China Sea issue.
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The South China Sea is also expected to loom large at Asia’s biggest security summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, which starts in Singapore tonight.
China-U.S. relations are too important for us to allow them to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue. ” … We continue to stand strong with our allies in their defense, in our collective defense – namely the Republican of Korea and Japan”.
China is preparing an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea, two years after it announced a similar one in the East China Sea, according to sources close to the People’s Liberation Army and a defense report.
Russel also said that China is a co-author of the latest U.N. Security Council sanctions on Pyongyang, which are considered the toughest ever to be imposed on the North, and China has expressed its determination to fully carry out the sanctions.
The Philippines has traditionally been one of Washington’s staunchest supporters in its standoff with Beijing over the South China Sea, a vital trade route where China has built artificial islands, airstrips and other military facilities.
The Chinese defense ministry told the newspaper that it was “the right of a sovereign state” to designate an ADIZ.
Reynolds continued his rebuttal on the Times’ innuendo from bringing up China’s rising military budget, noting that the editorial deliberately omitted the fact that the 2015 USA military budget was 601 billion US dollars, more than three times than that of China.
Carter has spoken forcefully about China’s military moves in the South China Sea and last week said Beijing risked building a “Great Wall of self-isolation”.
“There is much speculation about China’s next steps in the South China Sea”, Huxley added. But some of the perceptions in the USA and elsewhere about China’s policy and intentions in the area are misplaced.
In response, China has deployed fighter jets and ships to track and warn off the American ships, and accused the US of provocative action.
Chang had also criticized the United States for saying that China is threatening the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea through its navy vessels and construction and land reclamation activities on the Spratly Islands, where several ASEAN countries have claims.
And as a reminder, Duterte, who as we noted yesterday endorses the murder of “corrupt journalists” will likely be heavily supported by the US.
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Speaking during a visit to Canada after incoming Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte recently heaped praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping, Wang Yi told a news conference in Ottawa that “the door of dialogue between China and the Philippines is always open”.
