Chinese newspaper warns of war with US
BEIJING—A Chinese state-owned newspaper said on Monday that “war is inevitable” between China and the United States over the South China Sea unless Washington stops demanding Beijing halt the building of artificial islands in the disputed waterway. The United States and the other claimants to territory in the South China Sea want the island building to stop, saying it is undermining stability in the region.
On Friday, US Vice President Joe Biden told 1,070 graduates of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, that they would be deployed to the Asia-Pacific region “to keep the peace.” Biden described tensions over China’s island building in the Spratly archipelago as an example of challenges in the region.
“In the disputed waters of the
South China Sea, the United States does not privilege the claims of one nation over another, but we do unapologetically stand up for the equitable and peaceful resolution of disputes and for the freedom of navigation, and today these principles are being tested by Chinese activities in the South China Sea,” Biden said.
Possibility of conflict
The Global Times, an influential nationalist tabloid owned by the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper the People’s Daily, said in an editorial on Monday that China was determined to finish its construction work, calling it the country’s “most important bottom line.”
China should “carefully prepare” for the possibility of a conflict with the United States, the newspaper said.
“If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea,” the newspaper said. “The intensity of the conflict will be higher than what people usually think of as ‘friction.’”
Such commentaries are not official policy statements, but are sometimes read as a reflection of government thinking. The Global Times is among China’s most nationalist newspapers.
Tensions high
Biden told the newly commissioned naval officers that the South China Sea continued to be an arena for potential conflict and as important as ever to the United States’ security.
“Tensions run high,” Biden said. “As I speak, they run high, but you will be there to keep the peace.”
The vice president said many of the new naval officers would head to the Asia-Pacific region to help manage emerging challenges before they devolve into conflict.
Rebalancing to Asia
“US foreign policy is rebalancing toward the vast potential of the AsiaPacific region, but we can’t succeed if you don’t show up,” Biden said. “That’s why 60 percent of the United States Naval Forces will be stationed in the Asia-Pacific by 2020.”
He also noted the vital role the US Navy plays in protecting commerce at sea, as goods are transported around the world by ship.
“That remains the backbone of world commerce, 90 percent of it, and that’s only going to increase,” Biden said.
On Thursday, the Pentagon said the United States would keep up air and sea patrols in international waters despite Chinese warnings to its surveillance planes flying over artificial islands that Beijing is building in the Spratly archipelago.
The Pentagon also said the next US move, after Chinese warnings to a US Navy spy plane last week, could be testing China’s claim to nearly all of the South China Sea by going close to the sensitive zones.
China protest
On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China had lodged a complaint with Washington over last week’s US spy plane flight over Philippine-claimed Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross Reef).
Hua told reporters that China urged the United States to correct mistakes and avoid “irresponsible words and deeds” about Beijing’s massive land reclamation works around reefs in the Spratly archipelago.
The Pentagon said the P-8 Poseidon flight over Kagitingan was “entirely appropriate,” but China insisted it endangered the security of its islands and reefs.