Watch your mouth – China
Tillerson under fire for South Sea comments
PROSPECTIVE US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson better watch his mouth, angry Chinese media said yesterday, warning Donald Trump’s nominee that his threats to block China in the South China Sea were fighting words.
The comments came after the former ExxonMobil chief executive told US senators he would seek to deny Beijing access to the artificial islands they have been building in the South China Sea.
China’s actions in the region were comparable to Russia’s invasion of Crimea, he said, a comment that did not sit well with the nucleararmed Asian giant.
If Tillerson acted on his threats, Chinese state-owned China Daily warned “it would set a course for devastating confrontation between China and the US”.
Satellite photos show China has been hard at work building military facilities in the contested waters, which are also claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam, among others.
Under US President Barack Obama, Washington has claimed Beijing’s activities in the region threaten freedom of navigation and overflight through the commercially and strategically vital waters.
But it has not taken a position on the ownership of the islets, reefs and shoals that sit in one of the world’s hotspots. Tillerson, however, explicitly said that the territories were “not rightfully China’s”.
“Unless Washington plans to wage a large-scale war in the South China Sea, any other approaches to prevent Chinese access to the islands will be foolish,” the nationalistic Global Times wrote in an editorial.
The paper, which is thought to have some insight into the thinking of more hawkish members of Chinese Communist Party, added that Tillerson better “bone up on nuclear power strategies if he wants to force a big nuclear power to withdraw from its own territories”.
China’s official reaction to the comments was muted, with foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang m urging Washington to mind its own business. – AFP