“China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China”, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
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China claims most of the South China Sea through which trillions of dollars in ship-borne trade passes every year and has been undertaking extensive reclamation and construction activities on islands and reefs it occupies.
Apart from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also have competing claims in the sea, which encompasses vital global shipping routes and is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.
Despite repeated notes of concern from countries such as Japan, India, Vietnam and South Korea, Sun rejected the prospect of isolation, saying that numerous Asian countries at the gathering were “warmer” and “friendlier” to China than a year ago.
A senior French official who traveled with the minister said the country will discuss plans with European Union partners in coming weeks, with a focus on guaranteeing that European Union navies regularly crisscross the waters.
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke in Mongolia early Sunday and lectured China against establishing an air defense zone in the South China Sea.
It blamed Manila for the dramatic worsening in the two countries’ relations and in the peace and stability of the South China Sea.
Guan’s statement is a reiteration of China’s long-standing position that it wants to settle its disputes with countries on a bilateral basis and that it will not accept worldwide mediation.
“We were not isolated in the past, we are not isolated now, and we will not be isolated in the future”, Sun said, noting that countries that maintain a Cold War mentality when dealing with China risk building a wall and isolating themselves.
China’s Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), delivers his speech during a plenary session at the 15th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 5, 2016.
Chinese president Xi Jinping and US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday attended the opening ceremony of high-level meetings in Beijing amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea.
Also Saturday, India’s defense minister told the conference that it is in China’s economic interest to reduce tensions in the South China Sea. The move is largely symbolic as the guns are not considered advanced weaponry.
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“China’s construction of lighthouses is meant to add credence to the government’s position that the primary objective of its artificial islands is to provide public goods, such as safety of navigation, and that the military goal is secondary”, said South China Sea expert Ian Storey of the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute.
