(MENAFN- Arab Times) China hit back on Monday at US criticism that it restricts navigation and overflights in the South China Sea amid a festering marine territorial dispute with some of its neighbours.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Freedom of overflights and navigation doesn't mean allowing foreign warships and military jets to violate other countries' sovereignty and security, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Reuters on Monday, after US Secretary of State John Kerry accused China of restricting such movements in the region last week.
China sees freedom of navigation in the region as key because it is an important conduit for trade and natural resources, the ministry said. Kerry told a meeting of regional leaders in Kuala Lumpur last week that China's construction of facilities on man-made islands for "military purposes" was raising tension and risked "militarisation" by other claimant states. Kerry also criticised "restrictions" put in place in recent months by China, saying the US would not accept any restrictions on freedom of navigation and overflights.
China has repeatedly warned Philippine military aircraft away from the artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, Philippine military officials have said. The Chinese navy also issued eight warnings to the crew of a US P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft when it conducted overflights in the area in May, according to CNN, which was aboard the US aircraft. In June, China said it would soon complete a phase of its reclamation projects, adding it would continue to build facilities on the man-made islands.
Reclamation
Ongoing reclamation activities in the Spratly Islands include civilian facilities for the "public good" including hospitals, maritime research institutes, lighthouses and search and rescue facilities, the Foreign Ministry said. A Philippine lawmaker said on Monday he had information that a Chinese coast guard ship dropped anchor more than a month ago near a rusting Philippine Navy transport ship in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal. "I think China has no intention of leaving the area and they are waiting for our ship to collapse or prevent us from reinforcing that ship," Congressman Francisco Acedillo, a former air force pilot, said at a naval base in Manila. Acedillo said the presence of a Chinese ship within Second Thomas Shoal was a serious threat to the Philippines.
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The mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party on Monday carried a rare denunciation of retired leaders' continued influence, fuelling speculation over how far President Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign could go. Xi's much-publicised drive against corruption has ensnared a long list of senior and junior officials including the country's former security czar Zhou Yongkang, who was sentenced to life in jail in June. Zhou is regarded as an ally of former president Jiang Zemin, who ruled from 1989 to 2002 but is believed to have retained significant power throughout the following decade, when Hu Jintao was president. Speculation has circulated over whether Jiang could be targeted by Xi and the party's internal investigation branch, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). In February the CCDI posted an article online about princely corruption during the Qing dynasty, seen as alluding to Zeng Qinghong, a former vice president and Jiang's right-hand man.
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