China seeks peaceful resolution of disputes
SINGAPORE – China seeks a peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea but will not subjugate its national interests, Admiral Sun Jianguo told a regional defense forum in Singapore.
There is no change to China’s interest in safeguarding the freedom of navigation, Sun added.
“China strives to play a constructive role in international affairs with an objective and impartial position and will never depend on or subjugate itself to any external forces,” Sun said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a day after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter used his address at the forum to single out China as a source of instability.
Sun focused the bulk of his speech on setting out China’s collaboration in the region, calling the country
a “reliable friend and sincere partner” of developing countries and speaking of a shift away from the “zero sum” game of the Cold War era of great power relations, with conflict replaced by cooperation.
“We will not want to see chaos in this region, even less will we create troubles in this region,” he said.
China wants a peaceful resolution of disputes in the waters that are also claimed by smaller Southeast Asian states like Vietnam and the Philippines, he said. The area contains some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and may hold large energy resources.
Sun’s speech was a shift from China’s strategy at last year’s forum to be “very confrontational, staunchly defending Chinese interests, screaming,” said Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They tried a different strategy this year,” she said. “I think they came in with a strategy to not be confrontational.”
China’s reclamation work is in line with international norms and is about improving conditions on the reefs, said Sun, who is deputy chief of the general staff at the People’s Liberation Army. Admiral Harry Harris – now the head of the US Pacific Command – recently described the building activity as a “great wall of sand.”
“China has exercised enormous restraint, making positive contributions to peace and stability of the region and the world at large,” Sun said. “The situation in the South China Sea is, on the whole, peaceful and stable and there’s never been an issue with the freedom of navigation.”
Admiral Sun said whether China establishes an air defense identification zone over the South China Sea depends “on whether our security in the air and maritime area will be threatened and to what extent.”
3 defense ministers Australia, Japan, and the United States expressed serious concern over China’s large-scale land reclamation in contested areas in the South China Sea and urged China to “exercise selfrestraint.”
In a joint statement issued over the weekend following trilateral talks held on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit meeting in Singapore, Australian Defense Minister Kevin Andrews, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, and US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter also expressed their opposition to the use of coercion or force to unilaterally alter status quo in the East and South China Seas.
Likewise, the joint statement called on China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reach an early agreement in their ongoing talks over a proposed “Code of Conduct” to prevent the occurrence of incidents that could escalate, given antagonism between the two sides over China’s reclamation activities.
In addition, Australia, Japan, and the US vowed to extend assistance to the Philippines and other ASEAN member states’ efforts to shore up maritime security in the region.
The trilateral talks were held on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit — an international conference hosted by Britain’s International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Aside from the South China Sea territorial dispute, the three defense ministers also discussed North Korea. The statement included cooperation among Japan, the United States, and Australia for the first time in handling missile defense, given North Korea’s continued attempts to expand the range of its ballistic missiles.
At the security summit, Andrews issued the Australian government’s strongest signal yet that it is prepared to join the US and other countries in pushing back against China’s reclamation works in the South China Sea.
Without directly referring to China, the Australian defense chief warned that countries in the region will respond to actions in international security.
Australia surveillance
Australia will also continue its surveillance flights over the disputed South China Sea and insists on unhindered access to the area’s trading routes, Defense Minister Kevin Andrews said.
“We have been surveilling the area for close to 35 years,” Andrews said on Sunday in an interview on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security forum in Singapore. “We are doing it currently and we will continue to do it in the future.”
Andrews would not be drawn on whether Australia may fly planes over reefs that China has reclaimed -- a move that could amount to a “freedom of navigation” challenge. China has reserved the right to have an air defense identification zone over the South China Sea and its navy has warned planes to stay away from some areas.
“We want a de-escalation of tensions in the area,” Andrews said. “We insist upon the right to use waters, transit waters, that have been traditionally used over a long period of time.”
Australia, a longstanding US ally in the region with Marines based in its tropical northern city of Darwin, is seeking to balance its concerns about China’s military rise against the need to preserve economic ties with its largest trading partner, a big buyer of the country’s iron ore. Andrews said Australia is a “good friend of China” and “we want to retain that relationship with them.”