Tensions between the United States and China continue to escalate in the South China Sea region over Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in laying claims to nearly the entirety of the disputed waters in spite of partial claims from Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
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Carter said at an Asia security conference in Singapore on Saturday that Beijing risked erecting a “Great Wall of self-isolation” through its building of military outposts on reefs and islands in contest waters.
The Chinese foreign ministry is demanding the United States and Japan stop pointing fingers at China on the South China Sea.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled past year that it has jurisdiction over the case despite China’s rejection.
In a report last month, the Pentagon said China put its land reclamation efforts on hold in the Spratly Islands chain at the end of 2015.
China is risking self-isolation from other nations of the Asia Pacific region, who are working closely with the United States to build a NATO-like military alliance, which is a “principled security network” with America at its core, the Pentagon chief said.
The South China Sea is expected to feature prominently at annual high-level China-U.S. talks starting in Beijing on Monday, also attended by U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
“America wants to expand military-to-military agreements with China to focus not only on risk reduction, but also on practical cooperation”, Carter said at a security summit in Singapore.
“It’s not about China”, Carter said.
“We have traditional links with the countries in the South China Sea – more than half of our trade passes through its waters”, he said.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter will visit Beijing later this year to build upon recent overtures on cooperation with China, even as the USA emphasizes that it will be the primary hedge against future aggression in the South China Sea.
He called for Asean to resolve the dispute through dialogue and cooperation, and warned the USA and other countries not to intervene.
“We would consider an ADIZ … over portions of the South China Sea as a provocative and destabilising act which would automatically raise tensions and call into serious question China’s commitment to diplomatically manage the territorial disputes of the South China Sea”, Kerry said during a visit to Mongolia.
“We do not make trouble but we have no fear of trouble”, Admiral Sun Jianguo, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff Department of China’s Central Military Commission, told some 600 delegates including defence ministers, scholars and business executives gathered in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue defence forum.
“By doing so, our nations are making a choice for a principled and inclusive future, one as bright and miraculous as our recent past”, the secretary said.
By working together, he said, regional leaders and militaries “can continue to build a principled security network that will enable additional waves of miracles and human progress and ensure regional stability and prosperity for years to come”.
China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, overlapping with territory claimed by other Southeast Asian governments.
Carter for his part used his speech to tout USA ties with allies Japan, Australia and the Philippines, plus deepening relations with Singapore and Vietnam, where President Barack Obama lifted a four-decade ban on lethal weapons last month.
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According to the South China Morning Post, one of the priorities during Monday’s dialogue would be to find ways to contain the rising tensions between two of the world’s biggest economies.
