Richardson met with Chinese officials to discuss the South China Sea dispute and how the United States and China can ease their tense relationship over sovereignty in the region.
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Following his visit in Beijing, Richardson is scheduled to visit China’s North Sea Fleet for a visit the Chinese Navy’s submarine academy and tour the aircraft carrier Liaoning (CV-16).
Wu noted the importance both sides place on military-to-military relations and maritime security, and said the timing of Richardson’s visit further elevated such concerns.
Beijing- China will close off access to part of the South China Sea for military drills, officials said Monday, after an global tribunal ruled against its sweeping claims in the waters.
China will cut off access to part of the South China Sea for military drills, days after an worldwide tribunal ruled against Beijing’s broad claim to the waters.
Hainan province’s maritime administration said that an area southeast of the island province would be closed from Monday to Thursday, but “failed” to give any details about the nature of the exercises, an American news agency reported.
China says if its interests in the South China Sea are threatened, it could declare an air defense identification zone in the area.
Such air patrols would become “a regular practice” in the future, Xinhua reported an air force spokesman as saying.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague last week ruled that there was no legal basis for Beijing’s claims to much of the sea, embodied in a “nine-dash line” that dates from 1940s maps and stretches close to other countries’ coasts. China has said its position has support from numerous countries and has responded with fury to western calls for it to abide by the decision.
The Council on Foreign Relations noted in 2015 that 5.3 trillion dollars of world goods moved through the South China Sea, with 1.2 trillion of that bound for US shores.
Beijing lays claim to nearly all of the South China Sea, despite conflicting partial claims of Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
The ruling also criticized China’s efforts to build artificial islands in the Spratlys chain, known as Nansha in Chinese. The South China Sea is a strategic maritime crossroad for global freight.
President Barack Obama’s nominee for the next USA ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, said the United States would support China-Philippines negotiations that were free from “coercion and undue pressure”.
Sun said his country would not let anyone harm its stakes in the sea and that the so-called freedom of navigation issue brings in military threats, as well as “challenges and disrespects the global law of the sea”.
The military drill in the disputed South China Sea has been conducted by the PLA Air Force.
The commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy Wu Shengli has stressed that China and the United States have key roles in ensuring peace and stability in the South China Sea, and cooperation between the navies of the two countries is “the only correct option”.
In Manila, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it is still verifying reports that a Chinese nuclear-capable bomber plane flew over the disputed Scarborough Shoal, on July 15, three days after the PCA ruling.
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On July 12, the PCA ruled that China had no historic title over the West Philippine Sea and that it violated the rights of the Philippines when it put up structures in contested islands and drove out Filipino fishermen.
