BEIJING: China’s military sharply criticised the United States today for holding military drills in contested waters of the South China Sea, a dispute Beijing has warned Washington not to meddle in.
Chen Bingde, People’s Liberation Army Chief of the General Staff, said that if the United States really wanted peace in the South China Sea, then the timing of its recent military exercises in the region was poor.
”The US has said many times that it does not intend to get involved in the South China Sea dispute, but … is actually sending out the opposite signal,” Chen told a joint news conference with the visiting head of the US military, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
”Despite having conducted them in the past, holding these military drills at this moment is extremely inappropriate,” Chen said.
China has been embroiled in a row with the Philippines and Vietnam in recent months over what each government sees as intrusions and illegitimate claims in the stretch of ocean spanning shipping lanes and rich in oil and gas.
Beijing has called for disputes to be resolved bilaterally, a strategy some critics have described as ”divide and conquer”.
Others, including the Philippines, have urged a multilateral approach, and Manila has staged naval drills with the US navy in the region.
The Philippines’ foreign secretary said he proposed to China that the dispute be resolved through UN arbitration on his visit to Beijing last week, but did not express confidence that China would agree.
China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan all claim territory in the South China Sea. China’s claim is the largest, forming a vast U-shape over most of the sea’s 1.7 million square km.
China-US military-to-military relations have been rocky. China dislikes US reconnaissance patrols nears its coast and is suspicious of its bases in South Korea and Japan.
”America’s global unmanned aircraft have conducted reconnaissance only 16 nautical miles from China’s border. This is very, very close. I hope our American friends can adopt measures in this regard that will fully consider the feelings of the Chinese people,” Chen said.
The US for its part wants greater military transparency from China over its military modernisation, and has warned about China’s growing missile and cyber capabilities. (Reuters)
