A top Chinese official said on Thursday that US military drills and surveillance flights in the South China Sea were threatening regional stability, a harsh assessment that seemed likely to heighten tensions between the two countries before several crucial meetings.
The official, Colonel Yang Yujun, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence, said it was the United States, not China, that was to blame for rising tensions in the resource-rich South China Sea, where China and several other countries are engaged in territorial disputes.
“The Chinese side expresses its deep concern about the United States pushing the militarisation,” Colonel Yang said at a news conference in Beijing. “The behaviour by the United States can only lead one to suspect whether the American side is driven by a desire to see the world in turmoil.”
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The dispute over the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes, has emerged as a serious point of contention between China and the US.
It is likely to be high on the agenda when President Xi Jinping visits the United States to meet with President Barack Obama in September, and when Secretary of State John Kerry goes to Malaysia next week for a meeting of Asian nations.
China has argued that it is entitled to 90 per cent of the sea, putting it at odds with several nearby countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam. In recent months, it has accelerated its efforts to build artificial islands hundreds of miles off its shore, capable of holding runways, radar and missile systems. China maintains that the islands will primarily be used for rescue operations and scientific research.
While the United States has not taken a formal position on the territorial disputes, it has called on China to resolve the disagreements in international courts, an idea that Beijing has resisted. US officials have also worked to deepen military ties in the region, for example, by participating in joint military exercises with the Philippines, as well as air and sea surveillance operations.
In his remarks on Thursday, Colonel Yang took aim at those efforts, pointing to a recent seven-hour surveillance flight over the South China Sea by the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Scott H. Swift. Colonel Yang warned that the United States should maintain a “safe distance to avoid unexpected incidents.”
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