China insists all disputes should be resolved through bilateral talks.
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It could turn Scarborough Shoal an islet it wrested from Philippine control in 2012 “into a military outpost”, it said, and “tow away or sink” an old landing craft Manila grounded on the Chinese-claimed Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratlys to “resolve the standoff once and for all”.
Congressman Matt Salmon, Chairman of the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, said the Obama Administration and other counterparts across the world recognise the severity of the threat posed by China’s aggressive, coercive actions in the South China Sea that undermine global norms.
Chinese people, he highlighted, came to know the islands now at odds in the South China Sea as early as in China’s Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and have ruled them since ancient times, long before the UNCLOS, which was signed in 1982.
Wang repeated China’s position that it also wanted a peaceful resolution, but that it would not accept forced arbitration.
The RIC (Russia-India-China) foreign ministers had agreed that all maritime disputes, including the South China Sea controversy, should be addressed “through negotiations and agreements between the parties concerned”.
Although Taiwan is not a party to the case, the ruling could undermine R.O.C.sovereignty claims over Taiping Island and in the South China Sea.
That dispute made the Philippines bring its case before the Arbitral Tribunal to prevent China from claiming the whole South China Sea. “If such momentum went unchecked, accidents could happen and the South China Sea might sink into chaos and so might the entirety of Asia”.
China has been angered by United States patrols in the South China Sea in recent months and on Tuesday launched what the Defense Ministry termed “routine” military drills there.
Crew members take part in a fire drill on China’s largest and most advanced patrol vessel Haixun 01 on theSouth China Sea, April 4, 2016.
In the call initiated by Kerry, Wang also said relations between China and the United States were generally on a sound track and that the two sides should further focus on cooperation while properly managing their differences.
Kerry, for his part, said the United States understands that China has its own stance on the arbitration.
Ban’s visit takes place during a period of significant erosion in the human rights situation in China, including the adoption of draconian laws on national security and foreign nongovernmental organization management, the failure to hold the state security apparatus accountable for torture and other abuses, and the imprisonment of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize victor Liu Xiaobo.
“The arbitration tribunal farce should come to an end”, Wang said.
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The navy Friday carried out “combat exercises” with “live missiles” between the Paracels and the southern Chinese island of Hainan, the PLA Daily, the military’s official newspaper, said on its website.
