Continuing aggressive stand on maritime sovereignty in the South China Sea, China has said it will never accept any kind of dispute settlement by the third party and will never accept the settlement plans or ideas imposed upon Beijing.
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Chinese military announced on Thursday that China and Russian Federation will hold joint military drills in the South China Sea in September, which could further add to the existing tensions between United States and Beijing.
However, despite that assurance, conducting military drills in the South China Sea remains a politically sensitive topic, regardless of which countries are involved. These drills come after recent joint exercises between the two nations in the Mediterranean.
One leading Chinese propaganda outlet said in early July, “Even though China can not keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the USA pay a cost it can not stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force”. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims.
Saying that countries outside the region might only cause more problems in the dispute, Beijing has warned such nations to stay out of the issue, saying it “should be left to the countries of East and Southeast Asia”.
USA military forces are present in the area, with Washington claiming it can operate wherever worldwide law allows. China rejects the decision that threw out its argument for control over nearly all of the South China Sea but, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News minute, so far all sides have tried to restrain tensions.
China, in turn, called the verdict a “farce”, once again asserted that the territory belonging to its neighbors had been Chinese since “ancient times”, and vowed to ignore the verdict completely.
Beijing refused to participate in the case that was brought by the Philippines to the worldwide tribunal in the Hague and says it will not respect its judgement.
But they have often found common cause in blocking initiatives from the US and its allies on the U.N. Security Council, where they are both among the five veto-wielding permanent members.
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On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington wanted to avoid confrontation and encouraged China and the Philippines to engage in talks and “confidence-building measures”. “This has been done before by the USA and so the USA is going to have to live with the results of its own behavior”, she said.
