G7 to express concern over sea row, says paper
TOKYO—Group of Seven (G7) leaders will express their concern over any unilateral action to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas amid tensions between China and a number of Asian countries, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported on Saturday.
At the end of the two-day summit in Germany, which starts on Sunday, leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy will release a declaration calling for maintaining an international order of seas based on international law, the report said, without citing sources.
No country will be singled out, the report said.
G7 leaders a year ago expressed their concern about tensions between China and a number of other Asian countries over resources in the East and South China Seas, and warned against any use of force.
Territorial disputes
China claims most of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.
The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have overlapping claims in the sea, where islets, reefs and atolls are believed to be sitting atop vast oil and gas reserves.
All but Brunei have fortified bases in the disputed waters, which are roughly 1,300 kilometers from the Chinese mainland but much closer to the Southeast Asian claimants.
Japan also has a territorial row with China over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
China has been criticized for extensive reclamation work and moves to turn submerged rocks into artificial islands.
The United States last week said Beijing had placed mobile artillery systems in contested territory.
China has brushed off criticisms of its island-building in the South China Sea, insisting it has “undisputed sovereignty” over the sea, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of its smaller neighbors.
The United States says it does not take sides in the territorial disputes, but, claiming “national interest” in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, has taken steps to bring China’s expansion to global attention.
Pressure on China
In recent weeks, the United States has been ratcheting up pressure on China, actively and more publicly challenging Beijing’s sovereignty claims over half a dozen reefs that it has been transforming into artificial islands that can be used for military purposes.
On May 22, a US P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane—a militarized version of the Boeing 737—flew from Clark Air Base in the Philippines over Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef) and Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross Reef), previously submerged coral features that China occupied in the mid-1990s and late 1980s and are now expanding into islands several times their original size.
Recent satellite images show the construction of an airstrip, port facilities, cement factories and barracks, among other installations.
In a video captured by CNN, which had a crew on the P-8 flight, China’s Navy dispatcher warned the plane eight times to leave the area, and each time the US pilots responded by saying: “I am a United States military aircraft conducting lawful military activities acting outside national airspace. I amwith due regard in accordance with international law.”
Though not taking its allies’ side in the territorial disputes, the United States refuses to recognize China’s sovereignty claim over the contested waters.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the United States would continue to enforce freedom of navigation in what it considered international waters.
US officials and the other claimants are concerned that China could use the artificial islands to fortify its claims and gain the upper hand by force and intimidation.
‘New normal’
Washington is considering more military flights and naval patrols, possibly within 22 km of the artificial islands—a distance China considers its territorial waters.
The littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, among the US Navy’s most modern vessels, in May completed its patrol of the South China Sea. It encountered a Chinese Navy ship, but they contacted each other to avoid any mishap, according to US military officials.
Capt. Fred Kacher, commodore of the destroyer squadron, said routine operations like this in the South China Sea “will be the new normal” as four more littoral warships are expected to be deployed in the region.
China says it is “extremely concerned” with the possibility that the United States could start patrolling close to the artificial islands.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying says freedom of navigation does not mean that foreign military ships and aircraft can enter another country’s territorial waters or airspace at will.
The United States and China may not agree on the South China Sea, but the world powers are unlikely to start a conflict over it.
Instead, the South China Sea could become a new theater of Cold War-style confrontations involving close-in military flights and naval run-ins, the United States arming old allies (the Philippines) and seeking new ones (Vietnam).
Supporting allies
The United States has strengthened defense relations with Japan and the Philippines, part of its new policy of rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan and the Philippines are strengthening their security and economic partnership and are to begin talks soon toward cooperation between their militaries. Japan has also agreed to sell arms to the Philippines, including patrol vessels to enable Manila’s Coast Guard to patrol Philippine territory in the South China Sea.
US ally Taiwan is also strengthening its maritime capabilities, commissioning on Saturday two 3,000-ton patrol vessels amid concerns about China’s growing footprint in the South China Sea.
The new vessels will be able to dock at a new port being constructed on Taiping Island, the largest of the heavily disputed Spratly islands, before the end of this year.