May 14 2014
Breaking News Chinese General on Nuclear USSRonald Reagan Amid China Sea tensions
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South China Sea: What's Next?
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http://thediplomat.com/2014/
Philippines: China Building an Airstrip in Disputed Spratlys
Manila says China is reclaiming land and carrying out construction on Johnson South Reef in the disputed Spratlys.
By Shannon Tiezzi
May 15, 2014
As if tensions in the South China Sea weren’t high enough already, on Wednesday the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) accused China of conducting land reclamation and construction on Johnson South Reef, part of the disputed Spratly Islands. DFA spokesman Charles Jose told Reuters that China is moving earth and materials to the reef. “They’re about to build an airstrip,” he was quoted as saying. Other Philippine sources suggested China might be building a military outpost, such as a resupply or refueling station.
According to a statement from the DFA, the Philippines protested China’s reclamation of land on Johnson Reef on April 4, but China rejected the protest. It’s unclear why the Philippines waited over a month before deciding to publicly denounce the move. The DFA also said that it had raised the issue during last weekend’s ASEAN Summit, where the South China Sea issue was a major topic of discussion.
The Philippines believes that the construction project is in violation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. In that agreement, the ASEAN states and China agreed “to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes … including, among other, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands” or other features. Johnson Reef is already home to a number of buildings, including a maritime observation station.
China seemed to confirm that construction work on the reef is ongoing, but has not commented on what the final product will be. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters that China was perfectly within its rights to carry out construction on the reef, which she called Chinese territory. She also questioned Manila’s motives for raising the issue.
According to an AP source, the Philippine government believes China’s reclamation project (including dredging operations) has changed Johnson Reef from a largely-underwater feature to a islet encompassing around 30 hectares. The enlargement could have larger ramifications than the construction itself, as an islet provides a stronger basis for a territorial claim than a reef.
Richard Bitzinger of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore told Reuters that any airstrip built on Johnson South Reef would be “far too small to have a huge impact” strategically. Instead, he viewed the construction as an end in itself, “the laying down of one more marker to solidify [China's] position.” Both the Philippines and Taiwan already have airstrips in the Spratlys —on Thitu Island for the Philippines and Taiping Island for Taiwan.
The Spratly Islands encompass over 750 islands, islets, reefs, and other features in the South China Sea. Different areas of the Spratlys are claimed by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Johnson South Reef has been under Chinese control since a 1988 skirmish in the area, which left over 80 Vietnamese dead.
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http://thediplomat.com/2014/
Rioters in Vietnam Attack Chinese, Taiwanese Factories
Protests against a Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea turned violent, damaging hundred of foreign-owned factories.
By Shannon Tiezzi
May 14, 2014
Anti-Chinese sentiment in Vietnam spilled over into rioting on Tuesday, with Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reporting that two Taiwanese citizens were injured. The New York Times’ Chinese-language webpage cited local officials as saying there had been no deaths.
Most of the violence centered on industrial zones in the provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai, located respectively to the north and northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. Although the protests were sparked by anger at a Chinese oil rig operating in waters Vietnam claims as its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), rioters also damaged Taiwanese companies in the area. As the Taiwanese news agency CNA reported, the rioters targeted factories “with signs bearing Chinese characters or those with Chinese nationals as managers, many of which are actually Taiwanese companies.” Factories owned by Japanese, South Korean, and Singaporean citizens were also damaged in the riots.
Tran Van Nam, the vice chairman of Binh Duong province’s People’s Committee, told Reuters that the riots began after over 20,000 people turned out for what had been peaceful protests. In the course of the riot, 15 factories were set on fire, according to Nam. He estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage had been done. Taiwan’s representative to Vietnam, Huang Chih-peng, said that the riots had affected almost 1,000 Taiwanese companies in Binh Duong province alone.
The president of Formosa Industries Corp, one of the affected companies, said that rioters had looted electronic equipment as well as the personal belongings of factory workers. He complained that a lack of police presence in the area had allowed the rioters to run unchecked. The central government sent riot police and the military to help restore order to the affected areas. According to local police, over 440 people have been detained for their role in the riots. Most factories in the area remained shut down on Wednesday, although reports indicated the violence has stopped.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel alert for Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces, warning citizens to “avoid unnecessary travel” to those areas. China’s embassy in Vietnam posted a similar warning to its homepage, telling Chinese citizens to take precaution to ensure their safety and not to go out unless absolutely necessary. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry demanded that Vietnam “adopt effective measures to … protect the safety of Chinese citizens and institutions.”
Tuesday’s riots came after several days of demonstrations in Vietnam against what is seen as Chinese encroachment into Vietnamese territory. Over the weekend, protestors rallied outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi. The protestors were seen as having government support, as previous protests targeting China had been broken up by the authorities.
The anti-China riots bring a worrying extra dimension to what is already a tense crisis in the South China Sea. Continued violence against Chinese businesses could spark counter-protests in China. Intense domestic furor in both Vietnam and China would make a peaceful resolution to the oil rig confrontations even less likely. For now, at least, China appears to be trying to keep news of the riots from spreading, perhaps in an attempt to prevent public outrage. Chinese media outlets have been ordered not to report on the riots, according to China Digital Times.
Meanwhile, the damage done to Taiwanese factories also drags Taiwan into the dispute between Vietnam and the PRC. Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for increased security to protect Taiwanese businesspeople in the area, and also requested that Hanoi compensate business owners for damage done during the riots.
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http://www.usnews.com/news/
15 factories set alight, looted as anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam spin out of control
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Mobs burned and looted scores of foreign-owned factories in Vietnam following a large protest by workers against China's recent placement of an oil rig in disputed Southeast Asian waters, officials said Wednesday.
The unrest at industrial parks near Ho Chi Minh City is the most serious outbreak of public disorder in the tightly controlled country in years. It points to the dangers for the government as it tries to manage public anger at China while also itself protesting the Chinese actions in an area of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam.
Vietnam has sent ships to confront the rig which are engaged in a tense standoff with Chinese vessels protecting it.
The rioting Tuesday into Wednesday in Binh Duong province followed protests by up to 20,000 workers at the industrial parks. Smaller groups of men attacked factories they believed were Chinese-run, but many were Taiwanese or South Korean, the provincial government said in a statement.
On Wednesday morning, groups of men on motorbikes remained on the streets and factories in the area were closed, said a park manager who declined to give his name because of the sensitivity of the situation. Riot police were stationed around the area but men were still seen carrying looted goods, said a security guard, who also declined to be identified.
Firefighters battled to extinguish a fire at Tan Than Industries, a Taiwanese bicycle factory, where walls were toppled in the riots. Smoke poured out of blackened windows at other factories, as people waved Vietnamese flags while riding motorcycles through the streets.
Police said 440 people had been detained over the violence. Tran Van Nam, vice chairman of the Bing Duong government, said Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean factories that hadn't already shut down had been asked to do so temporarily for the sake of public order. He said the "situation was now under control."
Taiwanese-owned athletic shoe manufacturer Yue Yuen, which makes shoes for Nike, Adidas and Reebok, said it had closed its three complexes close to Ho Chi Minh City as a precautionary measure. "We believe that this should be solved very soon, that somehow ultimately it will be up to the government authorities to guide the overall sentiment," company spokesman Jerry Shum said.
The Singapore government, which operates two industrial parks hit by rioters, called on Vietnam "to act immediately to restore law and order ... before the security situation worsens and investor confidence is undermined."
The security guard said looters stormed his factory at 1 a.m. and took computers and anything valuable.
"The whole industrial zone looks like it was just smashed by a typhoon," the guard said.
Another executive said many foreign-owned factories were putting banners on the gates of the factories saying, "We love Vietnam" and "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa - Vietnam," using the Vietnamese names for the Paracel and Spratly islands claimed by both Vietnam and China.
The government said the protests were initially peaceful but were hijacked by "extremists" who incited people to break into the factories. It said at least 15 factories were set alight and hundreds more vandalized or looted.
China's Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Hanoi issued warnings to Chinese citizens and urged Vietnam's government to protect them. The embassy's website said it saw no end to attacks by what it called anti-China forces and urged Chinese to take safety precautions and avoid unnecessary travel.
Low wages have attracted foreign investors from across the world to Vietnam in recent years.
In 2013 Chinese invested $2.3 billion, a sharp rise from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. The country is also Vietnam's biggest trading partner, exporting billions of dollars of materials each year for factories producing goods including clothes, shoes and smartphones.
Vietnam reacted angrily after China towed a deep-sea oil rig on May 1 close to the Paracel Islands, which are controlled by China but claimed by Hanoi. It sent a flotilla of vessels to try to disrupt the oil rig. Some of the Vietnamese boats clashed with Chinese ships sent to protect the rig, raising fears of a possible conflict.
China has shown no signs of backing down, and accused Vietnam on Wednesday of "hyping" the issue.
"We urge Vietnam to stop all provocative actions, come to their senses, and stop all acts intended to create disturbances," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
The standoff underlines China's aggressive pursuit of its territorial claims despite complaints from smaller nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines, which also claim parts of the waters. The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, has called the latest Chinese action "provocative."
Over the weekend, the Vietnamese government gave rare permission for street protests against China in cities across the country.
The protests were enthusiastically covered by the state media, unlike the ones on Tuesday, which appear to have been hit by a media blackout.
The ruling Communist parties in China and Vietnam maintain close links and until May 1 had been trying to handle tensions over the territorial disputes quietly. Vietnamese authorities are normally highly nervous about spontaneous public gatherings of any sort. Many of the leaders of the anti-Chinese protests are also calling for basic democratic reforms, presenting a challenge to one-party rule.
Last month, the Philippines protested China's efforts to reclaim land in a disputed reef in the South China Sea after surveillance aircraft took pictures of dredging by Chinese vessels at Johnson Reef in the Spratly Islands, which the Philippines says violates a regional non-aggression pact, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said.
Del Rosario told The Associated Press that it's not clear what China intends to build on the reef, which Manila claims as part of its western province of Palawan, but one possibility is an airstrip. Another official said China could also build an off-shore military base.
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Associated Press writers Gillian Wong in Beijing, Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
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http://www.upi.com/Business_
No basis to China's South China Sea claims, Vietnam says
Vietnamese historian disputes Chinese claims to regional waters.
By Daniel J. Graeber | May 14, 2014 at 9:31 AM
HANOI, Vietnam, May 14 (UPI) --China has no sovereignty over waters in the South China Sea where it has deployed government vessels alongside an oil rig, a Vietnamese historian said.
China National Offshore Oil Corp. deployed drilling rig HD-981 about 120 miles off the coast of Vietnam in disputed waters in early May. Both sides make competing claims over the territory, though the Chinese government has been accused of taking provocative action in response.
Nguyen Quang Ngoc, vice chairman of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, said he has an atlas from the late 1800s that shows the territory in question is under Vietnamese authority.
"China has no sovereignty over the [region]," he said.
No known map, he added, shows Chinese territory extending that far south.
The Chinese government accused its Western adversaries, the United States in particular, of being on the wrong side of the debate with its criticism of Beijing's reaction to Vietnam's claims.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said during her regular press briefing Tuesday the stance from Beijing, "in our view, undermines peace and stability in the region."
Vietnamese nationals rallied in the United States, Europe, and at home to protest China's drilling rig, telling Beijing to keep its "hands off Vietnam."
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Manila to bear consequences for deliberate provocation
By Xinhua Writer Zhu Dongyang (Xinhua) 16:41, May 14, 2014
BEIJING, May 14 -- In a reckless move that further undermined the peace of South China Sea, Manila went ahead with a premeditated plot to provoke Beijing in a vain wish to infringe upon China's sovereignty.
Last week, Philippine police detained 11 Chinese fishermen and their boat near China's Half Moon Shoal in the South China Sea on the grounds that they poached sea turtles.
But no matter the allegation was true or not, Manila was wrong in the first place because China has indisputable sovereign rights over the Nansha Islands and the adjacent waters, including the Half Moon Shoal, where the incident occurred.
Thus any actions taken by the Philippines against the Chinese fishermen are illegal and invalid and would be regarded as direct infringements of China's sovereignty.
The timing of the incident is tricky, as it happened not long after U.S. President Barack Obama's recent visit to Manila, during which the two sides reasserted their military alliance.
The provocation also came days before the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), during which the emboldened Philippines, together with Vietnam, launched a failed bid to pit the regional bloc against Beijing over territory claims.
The Manila-Hanoi cohort evokes reminiscence of a Philippine naval delegation's beer drinking and volleyball playing with Vietnamese sailors in the South China Sea in April, widely read by the media as the two countries' budding nascent partnership amid their growing row with Beijing over contested waters.
But that kind of ill-disposed joint venture is built on shaky grounds and is doomed to fail.
While reiterating calls for peaceful settlement of the dispute and joint development of resources, China has also made it clear that it is confident and capable of countering challenges to its territorial and sovereign integrity.
All parties should also be reminded that ignorance of China's resolve to defend its sovereign land will induce consequences too severe for certain countries to bear.
Meanwhile, the wish to maintain regional peace and stability is shared by China and the majority of ASEAN members.
The United States, which is strengthening military alliance with Manila and has a huge stake in the region's stability, should comply with its promise to leave the countries concerned to settle their differences through bilateral talks.
Instead of spoiling its increasingly-paranoid junior ally and muddying the waters, Washington should keep Manila within bounds and try not to stir up tensions by backing it in territorial dispute.
After all, it won't serve Washington's interests if the dispute in the South China Sea spins out of control.
（Editor：WangXin、Yao Chun）
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http://www.csmonitor.com/
Sea turtles, cannons, and arrests: What's going on in the South China Sea?
China is embroiled in territorial disputes over an oil rig close to Vietnam and the arrest of Chinese fishermen in the Philippines, alarming its Southeast Asian neighbors.
By Ralph Jennings, Correspondent / May 14, 2014
TAIPEI, TAIWAN
Two incidents over disputed territory in the South China Sea this week threaten to disrupt the tense status quo between China and its southeast Asian neighbors.
In Vietnam, China's dispatch of a state-owned oil rig into waters close to Vietnam sparked a face-off between Chinese and Vietnamese ships and anti-China protests. In the Philippines, China is protesting the detention of a Chinese fishing boat filled with illegal sea turtles and the arrest of its crew.
While the region has been home to competing territorial claims for centuries, increasingly assertive action by both China and its neighbors has raised concerns that more serious conflict could erupt.
Here's what you need to know about the latest incidents:
1. What is the dispute between China and Vietnam, and how serious is it?
On May 3, China sent a 40-story high, football-field sized oil rig into territory claimed by both Vietnam and China, about 130 nautical miles off the coast of Vietnam. The deep-sea rig was reportedly accompanied by 80 Chinese ships.
Vietnam responded by sending its own vessels, which rammed Chinese ships at least 171 times, Chinese officials said. Vietnamese officials accused China of firing water cannons at Vietnamese ships.
Vietnam harbors decades of territorial and political grievances against China, easily fueling popular protests when bilateral spats arise. Anti-Chinese protesters in southern Vietnam last night set fire to several factories they believed were Chinese-owned.
There are signs of some diplomatic action: China and Vietnam had “14 communications” last week about the oil rig, the spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a briefing on Monday.
RECOMMENDED: Think you know Asia? Take our geography quiz.
2. What is the dispute between China and the Philippines, and how serious is it?
On May 6, the Philippines maritime police seized a Chinese fishing boat and its 11-person crew. China has demanded the return of the boat and the crew and said they were operating in China's "undisputed" territory.
Manila is instead putting nine of the crew members on trial for criminal offenses, after sending home two minors. The move is popular among Filipinos who feel bullied by China, but one that risks economic sanctions from Beijing.
The Philippines is known as one of the most aggressive challengers to China's territorial claims. It has opened international arbitration cases with the United Nations challenging Beijing's claims. Beijing has ignored the cases and has not sent lawyers to the UN.
3. Are these tensions in the South China Sea likely to escalate into fighting?
Observers forecast more scuffles such as the Vietnam-China incident, especially if Vietnam and the Philippines keep challenging China, which has a much larger military.
“In this highly charged environment there is always the possibility of an accident, which could result in an escalation of tensions,” says Murray Hiebert, senior fellow at the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.
However, the parties aren’t testing one another with aggressive naval movements or air force flyovers. South China Sea territorial flare-ups usually alternate with periods of conciliation, when rivals hold talks.
4. Is China asserting its territorial claims more forcefully now than in the past?
Six governments claim all or part of the South China Sea, which is known for international shipping lanes, fishing grounds, and up to 7.5 billion barrels of undersea oil. China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam say virtually the whole sea is their own, including hundreds of atolls and barely inhabited islets. Brunei and Malaysia claim parts of the South China Sea.
Disputes in the area emerged after World War II, heating up in the 1970s with occasional maritime scuffles. China clashed with Vietnam in 1974 and 1988 over competing ocean rights. China, Vietnam, and the Philippines most often appear on the front lines. The other claimants keep a low profile to maintain relations with China, though Taiwan periodically reminds its rivals of a military airstrip it operates on Taiping island in the Spratlys.
China has become more aggressive as its economic and political clout in the region has grown. It wants access to the ocean’s fisheries to feed its 1.3 billion people, and oil or natural gas to power its factories and cities. Beijing can now afford to take a tougher line against smaller Southeast Asian countries that increasingly depend on it for trade or investment.
China bases its oceanic claim on a U-shaped “nine-dash line" that extends south of Hong Kong. It says this is a traditional boundary that was referenced as far back as the Tang Dynasty about 1,500 years ago. Political analysts call China’s basis for sovereignty inconsistent with today’s international laws of the sea.
5. Is there a long-term solution?
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations voiced concern over the Vietnam-China upset at a meeting in Myanmar Saturday and vowed to work on an updated code of conduct for the sea. The 10-member bloc has pushed since 2002 for a code to head off accidents, but China has declined to sign one, preferring bilateral agreements. Southeast Asia is also relying more on the United States, which Beijing fears has jumped in to check China’s growth as a rival world superpower.
“[China] certainly increases the likelihood of other nations looking for more US involvement,” says David Dapice, chief economist with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Vietnam Program. Last month Washington agreed to station more troops in the Philippines. This month it slammed China’s placement of the oil rig in an exploration bloc that Vietnam had awarded to Exxon Mobil.
The six claimants will for the most part rely on an unspoken, self-enforced agreement to steer away from parts of the South China Sea most often used for fishing, oil exploration or military exercises. An updated code of conduct, augmenting the 1982 UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, would back up that deal in case competing vessels, oil rigs, or personnel come into contact at sea. Still, Southeast Asian nations have failed to get China on board.
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Stop fueling maritime provocation, Beijing tells Washington
2014-05-14 China DailyWeb Editor: Wang Fan
Beijing described Washington's latest remarks on the South China Sea on Tuesday as "inspiring belligerency" after US Secretary of State John Kerry said China's use of an oil rig in its territorial waters was provacative.
Analysts said China left no doubt that it was clearly warning the United States to abandon "hypocrisy" and to stop publicly backing countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines on issues regarding China's sovereign territory.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Kerry in a telephone conversation that China wanted the US to "stop fueling provocations by relevant parties".
Beijing urged Washington to "stand firmly by its previous commitments, be cautious in words and actions" and observe the maritime situation around China in "an objective and fair manner", Wang said.
Kerry said the US had no intention of judging when it came to the sovereignty of a territorial issue and Washington hoped that all parties concerned handled issues properly and maintained the peace and stability of the region.
Teng Jianqun, an expert at the China Institute of International Studies, said the US had already fully engaged itself in a range of problems that had flared up in the Asia-Pacific region, at the expense of its relationship with China.
Sabotaging such a relationship may have unimaginable consequences for the regional situation and even the world, and "fatal faults" in (US President Barack) Obama's rebalancing strategy should not be ignored, Teng said.
Jia Duqiang, an expert in Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Vietnam and the Philippines, under the shelter of the US, were provoking China to see if it would be intimidated by pledges made by Washington.
China says Vietnam sent 36 vessels, including warships, into waters off Zhongjian Island in China's Xisha Islands from May 3 to 7 to harass a Chinese oil rig's drilling operations. They deliberately rammed Chinese boats more than 170 times.
China also says that the Philippines charged nine Chinese fishermen on Monday after seizing them in waters off China's Banyue Reef. Beijing has demanded their immediate release.
Yuan Peng, a US studies expert and deputy president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the Obama administration appeared to be "drifting away from the gist of the century-long US diplomatic wisdom of maintaining a smart balance between two other nations."
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday that some countries had acted provocatively in the South China Sea in recent days, but China was not one of them.
If Washington truly hoped for peace in the Pacific Ocean, it should rethink how it should function and how it could ensure peace and stability in the region, Hua said.
Yuan added that the US had adopted a tougher stance in past months to demonstrate an unchanged policy focus in East Asia and to rally domestic support for the midterm elections.
Jia said the tensions caused by Vietnam and the Philippines had set bad examples and third parties may follow their lead to bully China if such problems were not resolved.
The Daily Tribune, a Philippine newspaper, attacked the country's President Benigno Aquino in an editorial on Monday, saying he "chose to take the US-prescribed path of agitating China to further substantiate the superpower's Asian pivot policy".
The newspaper added, "It is also noteworthy that the arrest of Chinese fishermen always happens at a crucial juncture like after the visit of key US officials, such as the recent overnight visit of US President Barack Obama."
Yuan predicted that after the US midterm elections later this year, the Obama administration may again tweak its East Asia policies to resume a balance in courting its treaty allies and China.
外交部：美方错误言论助长南海挑衅行为
王毅强调，推动中美新型大国关系建设是两国元首达成的重要共识，
2014-05-14 08:43XinhuaWeb Editor: Mo Hong'e
China on Tuesday denied that US Secretary of State John Kerry had accused it of making "provocative" moves in the South China Sea during a phone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Foreign media, including Reuters, quoted US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying Kerry told Wang over the phone that China's introduction of an oil rig and numerous government vessels in waters disputed with Vietnam was "provocative."
"In fact, US Secretary of State Kerry made no such comments during the phone conversation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told Xinhua.
According to Hua, Kerry's message during the phone talks was that the US takes neither positions nor sides, and has no intention to make any judgment on the issue of territorial sovereignty.
The United States hopes all parties will properly handle the issue to maintain peace and stability in the region, Hua quoted Kerry as saying.
Wang briefed Kerry on the historical context, facts and China's stance on issues regarding situations in the South China Sea and East China Sea, according to the spokeswoman.
Wang urged the US side to hold an objective, just and fair view, honor its commitments, and speak and act cautiously, so as to avoid encouraging concerned parties to take provocative actions.
"There is indeed a country taking provocative actions in the South China Sea, but this country is not China," Hua said at a regular briefing earlier on Tuesday.
Recently the United States has made mistaken comments regarding sea disputes, which have encouraged dangerous and provocative actions, she said.
"We expect the United States to reflect on its acts. If it indeed expects the Pacific Ocean to be pacific, it should think what role it can play in maintaining regional peace and stability," Hua said.
Beijing described Washington's latest remarks on the South China Sea on Tuesday as "inspiring belligerency" after US Secretary of State John Kerry said China's use of an oil rig in its territorial waters was provacative.
Analysts said China left no doubt that it was clearly warning the United States to abandon "hypocrisy" and to stop publicly backing countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines on issues regarding China's sovereign territory.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Kerry in a telephone conversation that China wanted the US to "stop fueling provocations by relevant parties".
Beijing urged Washington to "stand firmly by its previous commitments, be cautious in words and actions" and observe the maritime situation around China in "an objective and fair manner", Wang said.
Kerry said the US had no intention of judging when it came to the sovereignty of a territorial issue and Washington hoped that all parties concerned handled issues properly and maintained the peace and stability of the region.
Teng Jianqun, an expert at the China Institute of International Studies, said the US had already fully engaged itself in a range of problems that had flared up in the Asia-Pacific region, at the expense of its relationship with China.
Sabotaging such a relationship may have unimaginable consequences for the regional situation and even the world, and "fatal faults" in (US President Barack) Obama's rebalancing strategy should not be ignored, Teng said.
Jia Duqiang, an expert in Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Vietnam and the Philippines, under the shelter of the US, were provoking China to see if it would be intimidated by pledges made by Washington.
China says Vietnam sent 36 vessels, including warships, into waters off Zhongjian Island in China's Xisha Islands from May 3 to 7 to harass a Chinese oil rig's drilling operations. They deliberately rammed Chinese boats more than 170 times.
China also says that the Philippines charged nine Chinese fishermen on Monday after seizing them in waters off China's Banyue Reef. Beijing has demanded their immediate release.
Yuan Peng, a US studies expert and deputy president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the Obama administration appeared to be "drifting away from the gist of the century-long US diplomatic wisdom of maintaining a smart balance between two other nations."
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday that some countries had acted provocatively in the South China Sea in recent days, but China was not one of them.
If Washington truly hoped for peace in the Pacific Ocean, it should rethink how it should function and how it could ensure peace and stability in the region, Hua said.
Yuan added that the US had adopted a tougher stance in past months to demonstrate an unchanged policy focus in East Asia and to rally domestic support for the midterm elections.
Jia said the tensions caused by Vietnam and the Philippines had set bad examples and third parties may follow their lead to bully China if such problems were not resolved.
The Daily Tribune, a Philippine newspaper, attacked the country's President Benigno Aquino in an editorial on Monday, saying he "chose to take the US-prescribed path of agitating China to further substantiate the superpower's Asian pivot policy".
The newspaper added, "It is also noteworthy that the arrest of Chinese fishermen always happens at a crucial juncture like after the visit of key US officials, such as the recent overnight visit of US President Barack Obama."
Yuan predicted that after the US midterm elections later this year, the Obama administration may again tweak its East Asia policies to resume a balance in courting its treaty allies and China.
http://www.ecns.cn/2014/05-14/
China denies US accusation over South China Sea
外交部：美方错误言论助长南海挑衅行为
王毅强调，推动中美新型大国关系建设是两国元首达成的重要共识，
2014-05-14 08:43XinhuaWeb Editor: Mo Hong'e
China on Tuesday denied that US Secretary of State John Kerry had accused it of making "provocative" moves in the South China Sea during a phone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Foreign media, including Reuters, quoted US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying Kerry told Wang over the phone that China's introduction of an oil rig and numerous government vessels in waters disputed with Vietnam was "provocative."
"In fact, US Secretary of State Kerry made no such comments during the phone conversation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told Xinhua.
According to Hua, Kerry's message during the phone talks was that the US takes neither positions nor sides, and has no intention to make any judgment on the issue of territorial sovereignty.
The United States hopes all parties will properly handle the issue to maintain peace and stability in the region, Hua quoted Kerry as saying.
Wang briefed Kerry on the historical context, facts and China's stance on issues regarding situations in the South China Sea and East China Sea, according to the spokeswoman.
Wang urged the US side to hold an objective, just and fair view, honor its commitments, and speak and act cautiously, so as to avoid encouraging concerned parties to take provocative actions.
"There is indeed a country taking provocative actions in the South China Sea, but this country is not China," Hua said at a regular briefing earlier on Tuesday.
Recently the United States has made mistaken comments regarding sea disputes, which have encouraged dangerous and provocative actions, she said.
"We expect the United States to reflect on its acts. If it indeed expects the Pacific Ocean to be pacific, it should think what role it can play in maintaining regional peace and stability," Hua said.
http://www.ecns.cn/military/
