“One should never link such military facilities with efforts to militarize the islands and reefs and militarize the South China Sea”, Liu said.
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China claims most of the South China Sea as its territory, but four South-East Asian states also claim parts.
China has been transforming reefs in the Spratly archipelago into artificial islands and has built airfields and other facilities on them.
Beijing on Monday clarified that it is not pursuing to militarize the disputed South China Sea despite its massive land reclamation activities in the region.
China has voiced “strong discontent” over the recent intrusion of a USA warship in waters near China’s Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.
China will buy more Malaysian government bonds and give the country a 50 billion yuan ($7.83 billion) quota to invest in Chinese stocks and bonds as it looks to strengthen ties with Southeast Asia, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday (Nov 23).
During a meeting with USA ambassador to China Max Baucus, vice-foreign minister Zhang Yesui reportedly said that the incident last Tuesday was “extremely irresponsible”, as noted by The Guardian on the same day.
Founded in 1967, ASEAN consists of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Concerns have been growing over the rapid appearance of islands created by piling sand atop reefs and atolls controlled by China, which is now adding harbors, air strips and large buildings.
Mr Liu’s comments at the annual East Asia Summit hosted by Kuala Lumpur, were some of the most forceful explanations that China has given regarding its position on the South China Sea. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a development bank backed by China, won support from Asian and Western European economies this year despite an ambivalent response from the United States. In October, a US guided-missile destroyer cruised around one of the islands, and just this month, U.S. B-52 bombers flew near the area.
Xinhua News Service reported that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said any unilateral resort to arbitration will only hurt the commitment to resolving the disputes and will undermine political mutual trust.
It was nearly certain that U.S. President Barack Obama, as well as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, would raise concerns about the South China Sea, a key shipping route thought to hold significant oil and gas deposits, their aides said.
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Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak put in perspective that when it comes to freedom of navigation and overflight, all countries agreed that there should not be any interference and that there should be respect. “This has gone beyond the scope of freedom of navigation”.
