China to US: Stop meddling in territorial dispute
China has warned the United States against interference in the territorial dispute in the South China Sea and thereby stoking tensions.
“The United States should stop playing up the South China Sea issue,” Hong Lei, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday.
The US has to “stop heightening tensions in the South China Sea and stop complicating disputes in the South China Sea,” he added.
China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The waters are believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.
On September 20, British Jane’s Defense Weekly published satellite images purportedly showing that China had completed building a runway on a disputed reef, and was moving closer to making it operational. It also claimed that the completion of the runway could enable China to speed up the construction of infrastructure and start conducting aerial patrols over the disputed islands.
Washington has sided with China’s rivals in the territorial dispute.
The Chinese official’s comments came after US President Barack Obama met with Philippine President Benigno Aquino in the Philippines’ capital, Manila, during the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering.
“We discussed the impact of China’s land reclamation and construction activities on regional stability,” Obama told reporters after the meeting, adding, “We agree on the need for bold steps to lower tensions, including pledging to halt further reclamation, new construction, and militarization of disputed areas in the South China Sea.”
Hong said, however, “No country has the right to point fingers at” China’s construction activities.
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