OTTAWA, Canada-Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday he welcomes a possible warming of relations with the Philippines, now strained over China’s claims to most of the South China Sea.
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The Philippines’ incoming president Rodrigo Duterte has said that he wanted to cultivate friendly relations with China, and confirmed that he was open to direct talks over the row in the South China Sea, which had damaged bilateral relations.
Beijing will pressure Washington over maritime issues during the upcoming annual strategic and economic dialogue, as the US’s increasing military presence in the South China Sea is among the country’s major concerns, officials here said.
However, the U.S. takes no sides on the competing territorial claims but ensures freedom of navigation and flights in the sea and has sent warships near Chinese-held islands.
On the sidelines of the Roundtable, Welch criticized the Western media for the low-quality reporting on the South China Sea and proposed the Chinese media do constructive reporting as a counter-measure.
“If the U.S. military keeps making provocative moves to challenge China’s sovereignty in the region, it will give Beijing a good opportunity to declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea”, the source told the newspaper.
In December, Faeldon took a group of Filipino protesters to a disputed island in the South China Sea that is held by the Philippines, triggering an angry response from Beijing.
Xiao Jie, mayor of Sansha – China’s administrative centre in the Paracels – said he is planning to “develop some islands and reefs to accommodate… tourists”.
Separately, two Indian Naval warships reached Subic Bay, the Philippines, on a three-day visit, as part of deployment of the Eastern Fleet to the South China Sea and Western Pacific.
Despite this, Duterte remains firm in his position regarding the South China Sea maritime dispute, where both the Philippines and China are claiming the rights to the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands.
China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, will take up the matter with US Secretary of State John Kerry during the Eighth US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue next week, said Mr Zheng.
The South China Sea is also likely to feature at a June 3-5 security forum in Singapore known as the Shangri-La Dialogue.
A court ruling is expected to be delivered within weeks.
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The boundaries of the Philippines on the map were marked by a red line, which the South China Sea islands, including the Nansha Islands and the Huangyan Island, clearly lie out of.
