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Chinese expert rips into US Shangri-La speech, debunks 'China Threat' point by point
Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense Photo: Ministry of National Defense
In response to the negative comments by US defense secretary on China at the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue, which exaggerated the "China threat" narrative, Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, stated on Sunday that the US is accustomed to creating disputes, inciting confrontation, and pursuing selfish interests at the Shangri-La Dialogue. The remarks made by the US defense secretary were filled with deeply ingrained hegemonic logic, bullying behavior, and Cold War mentality. They seriously provoke China's sovereignty and interests, distort China's policy positions, and grossly disregard the joint efforts of regional countries to maintain prosperity and stability, Zhang said. This stance of the US is in serious deviation from the common aspiration of countries around the world for peace and development. We express strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this, Zhang said, according to a statement released on the WeChat account of China's Ministry of National Defense on Sunday.
Zhang stated that the US's actions are evident to the international community. Driven by selfish interests, the US has initiated tariff and trade wars, imposing exorbitant levies globally. It has formed exclusionary cliques and engaged in bloc confrontations, raising deep concerns among various countries, said Zhang. It has strengthened military deployments in the Asia-Pacific region, grossly intervened in the internal affairs of other countries, and incited tensions. The facts repeatedly prove that the US is going against the tide of the times and acting unilaterally, which will only backfire on the US itself, Zhang said.
The Taiwan question is purely China's internal affairs, and the US has no right to make irresponsible remarks or to attempt using this as a bargaining chip to contain China. The Chinese People's Liberation Army will resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will firmly crush any "Taiwan independence" separatist schemes and any external interference. Our determination is unwavering, and our capabilities and means are strong and reliable, said Zhang.
The spokesperson noted that the South China Sea is internationally recognized as one of the busiest and safest shipping routes. He stated that China will persist in resolving differences through dialogue and consultation with relevant countries, uphold territorial sovereignty and maritime rights in accordance with the law, and collaborate with regional countries to build a sea of peace, friendship, and cooperation. The US is bent on sowing chaos in the South China Sea by forming alliances and stirring up trouble, which poses the greatest threat to regional peace and stability, Zhang said.
China has always been a guardian and promoter of peace and development in the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese military will work together with regional countries to jointly oppose hegemonism that harms the Asia-Pacific, to oppose the introduction of geopolitical conflicts into the Asia-Pacific, and resist any country or force creating chaos. Zhang affirmed that China will actively implement the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind and the "three global initiatives," working together to maintain long-term peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific.- Global Times
<<< Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei (Source: fmprc.gov.cn)
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday again urged the Philippines to stop its arbitral proceedings and return to the right track of settling relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comment at a routine press briefing.
The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement saying that disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea should be settled through bilateral negotiation.
Hong said that by unilaterally initiating the arbitration in 2013, the Philippines had turned its back on the possibility of solving the issue through negotiation, leading to a dramatic deterioration of relations between China and the Philippines.
China and the Philippines have reached consensus on settling maritime disputes through bilateral negotiation in a number of bilateral documents, but the two countries have never engaged in any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration, said Hong.
By unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has violated its agreement with China as well as its own solemn commitment in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), he said.
This is an abuse of the dispute settlement procedures of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and is against international law, including UNCLOS, he added.
The door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiation is always open, he said. "China will remain committed to settling through negotiation the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law."
"China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China," Hong said. - Xinhua
BEIJING: China has urged the Philippines to “immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings” and “return to the right path” of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea, through bilateral negotiation.
In an official statement released yesterday, the Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to a settlement via two-way negotiations, rather than an arbitration unilaterally sought by Manila against China in 2013.
Ties between Beijing and Manila were sunk after the initiation of the arbitration. From the very start of the arbitral process, China has refused to accept or participate.
In the wake of recent comments made by various Chinese officials about the arbitration, the statement said “the door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiation is always open”.
Observers and the media have increasingly called on Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and his expected administration to quit the arbitration and return to the table for two-way negotiations.
The arbitral case is still pending. Some media and observers said the expected ruling by the arbitral tribunal would be made in a few weeks.
China will remain committed to settling through negotiation the relevant disputes “on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law,” the ministry wrote.
In the past weeks, Washington has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the ruling.
That also included a call from US Defence Secretary Ash Carter on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said although it remained to be seen if the incoming Philippine administration would quit the arbitration and return to the table for talks, “it is apparent that the arbitration – from its very beginning – has led to increasing, not decreasing, number of problems between Beijing and Manila”.
“Other regional countries will come to the conclusion that embarking on such an arbitration will obtain no benefit, not to mention resolving any of the existing disputes,” Wu said.
Jia Duqiang, a researcher of South-East Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said as the arbitration process came to a critical moment, all parties knew clearly that “no good will serve any party if the big picture is damaged”.
He also said the incoming administration was re-evaluating its policies towards China. — China Daily / Asia News Network
China pushes back against US pressure
SINGAPORE: China rebuffed US pressure to curb its activity in the South China Sea today, restating its sovereignty over most of the disputed territory and saying it "has no fear of trouble".
On the last day of Asia's biggest security summit, Admiral Sun Jianguo said China will not be bullied, including over a pending international court ruling over its claims in the vital trade route.
"We do not make trouble, but we have no fear of trouble," Sun told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, where more than 600 security, military and government delegates had gathered over three days.
"China will not bear the consequences, nor will it allow any infringement on its sovereignty and security interest, or stay indifferent to some countries creating chaos in the South China Sea."
The waterway has become a flashpoint between the United States, which increased its focus on the Asia-Pacific under President Barack Obama's "pivot", and China, which is projecting ever greater economic, political and military power in the region.
The two have traded accusations of militarising the waterway as Beijing undertakes large-scale land reclamation and construction on disputed features while Washington has increased its patrols and exercises.
On Saturday, top US officials including defence secretary Ash Carter warned China of the risk of isolating itself internationally and pledged to remain the main guarantor of Asian security for decades.
Despite repeated notes of concern from countries such as Japan, India, Vietnam and South Korea, Sun rejected the prospect of isolation, saying that many of the Asian countries at the gathering were "warmer" and "friendlier" to China than a year ago.
China had 17 bilateral meetings this year, compared with 13 in 2015.
"We were not isolated in the past, we are not isolated now and we will not be isolated in the future," Sun said.
"Actually I am worried that some people and countries are still looking at China with the Cold War mentality and prejudice. They may build a wall in their minds and end up isolating themselves."
During a visit to Mongolia today, US secretary of state John Kerry urged Beijing not to establish an air defence identification zone (Adiz) over the South China Sea.
Kerry, who will visit China next, said an Adiz would be "a provocative and destabilising act", which would question Beijing's commitment to diplomatically manage the dispute.
The South China Sea is expected to feature prominently at annual high-level China-US talks starting in Beijing on Monday, also attended by US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
US concerns about Chinese trade policy and the difficulty foreign businesses say they face operating in China will add to what will likely be difficult discussions. — Reuters
For more insights into the South China Sea issue, we have
as our studio guest Jia Xiudong, a Senior Research Fellow from the China
Institute of International Studies. Q1. China insists the Philippines
unilateral arbitration is illegal. So how much do you think the
arbitration can help solve the maritime dispute?
China believes that there are political motivations behind
the arbitration by the Philippines, as it is an open denial of China's
sovereignty. It brings uncertainty to how China would solve disputes
with other countries.
Analysts refute Ashton Carter's China 'self-isolation' claims
SINGAPORE - US defense secretary's China "self-isolation" claims were totally incorrect, local analysts said here on Saturday.
In a speech delivered here Saturday at the on-going Shangri-La Dialogue, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said China could end up erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation, but analysts here refuted Carter's remarks as one-sided and over-exaggerated.
As China develops, Asia-Pacific countries had built close relations with not only the United States but also China, which proves Carter's China "self-isolation" claims at best "exaggerated," said Huang Jing, Professor and Director of Center on Asia and Globalization, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
East meets West: China’s People’s Liberation Army deputy chief of general staff, Lieutenant General Qi Jianguo (right), welcomes US Navy Admiral Samuel Locklear, the commander of US forces in the Pacific region, to a meeting on the sidelines of the 12th International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore on Sunday. Reuters/Edgar Su
Political conferences all have their own character, which also determines their actual value.
ONLY a quarter of a century ago, Malaysia launched the first premier annual conference for the most dynamic part of the world.
Thus was ISIS’ Asia-Pacific Roundtable (APR), organised by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Kuala Lumpur. It soon became an institution and a pilgrimage for strategic thinkers, policymakers and analysts with a focus on security in East Asia and the Americas, with Russia, Australasia and the Pacific somewhere in between.
As a non-governmental forum, the APR became the top “Track Two” dialogue for the Asia-Pacific mega-region’s movers and shakers. Because Track One (governmental) forums were official, delegates there would be inhibited and dialogues overburdened with protocol.
Track Two dialogues, however, were non-official and included governmental officials alongside academics and others. With everyone speaking in a private capacity, exchanges tended to be more open and candid.
This allowed officials the time and space to speak their mind, while giving non-officials an opportunity to “listen in” and address officials directly. The APR series would go on to inspire copies, or at least near-copies.
In 2002, Singapore began its own annual conference series in the Shangri-la Dialogue (SD). This would be a Track One exercise managed by Britain’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS).
Through the years other Asean countries also established their own national think- tanks, with one from each country forming part of the Asean-ISIS network. The APR then became their joint project, while still being organised by ISIS Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.
After the SD, the Swiss-based World Economic Forum (WEF) also turned its gaze eastwards. Apart from the WEF’s annual meetings in Davos, it also began to hold several conferences a year elsewhere, including the annual WEF on East Asia.
The APR is held in late May or early June each year. For both the SD and the WEF on East Asia to be held back-to-back with the 2012 APR testifies to the APR as a form of mainstay. Organisers tend to hold broadly similar forums in a region around the same time to economise on travel expenses for international participants. That the other international conferences adjusted their schedules to suit Asean-ISIS’s timing is a measure of how Asean and its institutions can implicitly drive international events involving major world powers.
While the SD focuses on politics and provides a political platform for delegates, the WEF on East Asia (like other WEF forums) emphasises corporate activity and provides a business platform for delegates. Their similarities and differences with each other and with the APR became obvious this year.
The APR’s agenda this time ranged from regional security with the rise of China and India, to US strategic interests, sub-regional perspectives, governance issues and Myanmar’s future.
There was, as usual, a fair assortment of delegates from various countries around the Asia-Pacific. Someone remarked on how much of the discussion was taken up on China and the implications of its continued rise, but at least the conference could not be accused of skirting the reality outside.
This concerns the key question of how much of the region’s realities are actually reflected in conference discussions. What is their street credibility like?
The SD tended, perhaps typically, to be dominated by Western voices. Much of the time it was US officials in particular talking to their Asian counterparts over everyone else.
US-China military relations or rather the lack of them this time became almost the dominant theme. Attracting most interest was the US view of China’s rise, in particular with the attendance of US Defence Secretary and former CIA director Leon Panetta.
The SD’s strategic focus on China came at a time when Vietnam and the Philippines were experiencing renewed problems with China’s rival claims to South China Sea territory. Perhaps for this reason, several Chinese would-be delegates apparently gave this year’s SD a miss.
This showed that Chinese delegates had yet to prepare themselves sufficiently for vigorous public debates. That would require, for example, adequate mastery of the main language of discourse, English, to engage with others convincingly and persuasively.
With the “China component” virtually absent, there was a complaint that the Shangri-la Dialogue proved to be not much of a dialogue. And since friendly relations across the seas this time were somewhat strained, it wasn’t much of a Shangri-la situation either.
Further north in Bangkok, several important social issues were aired along with the platforms for businesses.
There were the obligatory discussions on China-US or US-China relations, of course. Who could seriously omit such a pivotal issue in the region?
But China was discussed in a variety of ways beyond the flat topic of a military enigma. There was, for example, consideration of how the worsening European debt crisis could hit China and then impact on the rest of the region in myriad ways.
There were also important exchanges on the reform process in Myanmar. However, these were somewhat dwarfed by the presence of Aung San Suu Kyi, on the podium addressing everyone directly in her first trip outside her country in 24 years.
For the first time, delegates could speak with her and relate to the needs of Myanmar and its people. Such was the impact created that the WEF on East Asia decided to hold next year’s conference in Myanmar.
The discussion on how banks must also serve the poor had a showing by the Boston Consulting Group. However, talk of how providing banking access to some 20% of the world’s population still without access could re-energise growth did not arouse much debate on how this might require a whole reconceptualisation of banking priorities.
Discussion on the need for mobile healthcare, particularly for rural areas, saw representations by the Telenor Group and Boston Consulting. While this would clearly maximise the capacity of healthcare professionals, it would also involve a serious re-assessment of private and public sector roles in healthcare funding.
Food security was a main item on the agenda, with the observation that despite increases in food production in the past half century, a billion people are still starving. But again, there was not much debate on how the question is not the amount of food produced but its distribution, as determined by global markets and prices.
As a conference in the heart of the Asean region, surrounded by Asean realities, the WEF could not miss the quickening pace of Asean economic integration and the creation of a common market by 2015. There was no doubt that Asean integration would proceed full-speed in all its intended spheres. In attempting to learn from the EU experience, however, Asean needed to adapt from European successes while avoiding the failures.
Over at the SD in Singapore, the question of how the US could grapple with a looming Chinese presence in the region led to consideration of the US navy’s new intended toy, the super-high-tech destroyer DDG-1000.
At US$3bil (RM9.56bil) each, this would push the navy into the space age and the Defence Department into near-insolvency. Perhaps not surprisingly, there was also little debate on how the greatest threats confronting the US are not other countries but non-state actors like terrorist groups and various militant organisations.
Perhaps some help could come by way of more Track Two dialogues.
New strategy: The US plans to shift the bulk of its naval fleet to the Pacific, as Defence Minister Stephen Smith dismissed fears the move would stoke tensions with China. Picture: AP AP
SHIFTING FOCUS:While the US plans a ‘new strategic focus’ in Asia, China warned that now is not the time to ‘make waves’ in the South China Sea, which it claims
US fighter jets take off from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class USS George Washington for joint military exercises between the US and South Korea in the Sea of Japan (also known as the East Sea) on June 26, 2010.
China’s Xinhua news agency warned yesterday it was no time to “make waves” in the disputed South China Sea, after the US said it would shift the bulk of its naval fleet to the Pacific Ocean by 2020.
“It is advisable for some to refrain from muddying the waters and fishing therein,” said Xinhua, referring to the sea, which is part of the Pacific and the subject of overlapping territorial claims.
China claims the sea in full, and it is also claimed in whole or part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“As regards the South China Sea tensions, it is some other claimants, whether emboldened by the United States’ new posture or not, that sparked the fire and have been stoking the flames,” the agency said.
It was Beijing’s “genuine wish” to turn the South China Sea “into a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation,” Xinhua added.
The commentary was a reaction to US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta telling a summit in Singapore yesterday that the US would shift the bulk of its naval fleet to the Pacific as part of a new strategic focus on Asia,
The decision to deploy more ships to the Pacific Ocean, along with expanding a network of military partnerships, was part of a “steady, deliberate” effort to bolster the US role in an area deemed vital to the US’ future, he said.
He insisted the switch in strategy was not a challenge to China, saying both countries had a common interest in promoting security and trade in the region.
“By 2020, the navy will re-posture its forces from today’s roughly 50/50 percent split between the Pacific and the Atlantic to about a 60/40 split between those oceans,” Panetta said.
“That will include six aircraft carriers in this region, a majority of our cruisers, destroyers, littoral combat ships and submarines,” he added.
The US Navy currently has a fleet of 285 ships, with about half of those vessels deployed or assigned to the Pacific.
Although the total size of the overall fleet might decline in coming years depending on budget pressures, Pentagon officials said the number of US naval ships in the Pacific would rise in absolute terms.
The US also planned to expand military exercises in the Pacific and to conduct more port visits over a wider area extending to the Indian Ocean.
