SUBIC, Zambales–Fishermen from this town have confirmed the presence of new Chinese vessels at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, after venturing into South China Sea waters outside their traditional fishing ground off the province.
Advertisement
Its defense ministry expressed “grave concern” that China was preparing to build structures at the shoal.
Vientiane-Regional problems should be solved by countries in the region and others should not interfere, a Chinese vice foreign minister said on Thursday, following an East Asia summit at which some leaders raised the issue of security in the South China Sea.
This was aired by Pres. Duterte during Wednesday’s ASEAN-China meeting in the ongoing 28th and 29th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit being held in Laos. China has refused to recognize the ruling by the court in The Hague.
China and ASEAN on Wednesday issued a joint statement on the application of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) in the South China Sea as well as a guideline on senior diplomat hot line to cope with maritime emergencies. The final version was not immediately released.
Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, also expressed concern about China’s increasing muscular claims to dispute maritime territory in the South China Sea on Wednesday. “But I also look forward to discussing how we can constructively move forward together to lower tensions and promote diplomacy and regional stability”.
Competing territorial claims in the South China Sea have always been a source of tension in the region, with China, historically, using deadly force twice to seize control of islands from Vietnam.
The two sides also vowed to continue strengthening cooperation in environmental protection, sustainable development and management of land and water resources, biodiversity conservation as well as address transboundary challenges, and strengthening dialogue and cooperation in the global climate change and other environment-related negotiations. “In some sense they are being self-isolated”, he said.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (9th R) attends the 11th East Asia Summit in Vientiane, Laos, Sept. 8, 2016.
“We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation in and over-flight in the South China Sea”, the draft of its post-summit statement said.
Expanding that presence with a military outpost is vital to achieving China’s ambitions of controlling the sea, according to security analysts. Manila says China’s blockade of the shoal is a violation of worldwide law.
The leaders also welcomed the designation of 2017 as the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation. Cambodia, for example, remains in China’s camp, as does Laos to a large extent, preventing any robust statement from the consensus-bound ASEAN group. Obama said he’d told Duterte that their aides should confer on how to move forward, adding that the spat would have no effect on the close cooperation between the longtime treaty allies.
China pulled out all the stops to block any reference to the words “recent activities”, “serious concern”, “reclamation”, “militarization”, “loss of trust” and “need to respect legal processes”, but failed as all these phrases made it into the statement, said a senior USA administration official who requested anonymity to discuss diplomatic discussions.
Yet the statement did not explicitly call on China to abide by the July ruling, reflecting divisions in ASEAN. China claims virtually the entire sea as its own, citing historical reasons. That has pitted it against the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, all members of ASEAN. Ties turned frosty when new President Rodrigo Duterte insulted Obama on Monday, prompting the cancellation of a meeting between them.
Relations were severely strained under Duterte’s predecessor because of the conflict.
Advertisement
Li reiterated China’s diplomatic principles that all countries, big or small, are all equal, should respect each other, and seek common ground and shelve differences. “We are confident that the relations between us will be improved with the joint efforts of the two countries”, he said.
