China, US warn each other over islets
A top Chinese military official has denounced US "provocations" in the South China Sea, saying it does not fear "trouble" over the territorial dispute.
"We do not make trouble but we have no fear of trouble," Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, said on Sunday.
He spoke one day after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned that Chinese construction on a South China Sea islet would prompt unspecified "actions" by the United States and other nations.
US Secretary of State John Kerry also warned Beijing on Sunday against setting up an air defense identification zone over the disputed waters, saying it would be a "provocative and destabilizing act."
The US has waded into the regional territorial dispute, conducting patrols near Chinese-held islands.
Addressing a security summit in Singapore, Sun charged that "some hegemonic countries have empowered small countries to make provocations against big countries."
"The South China Sea issue has become overheated because of the provocations of certain countries for their own selfish interests," he said.
Sun also urged countries outside the South China Sea region to play a “constructive role” in resolving the maritime dispute rather than the other way round.
Rhetoric has escalated over dispute on a South China Sea islet claimed by the Philippines, a longtime US ally and former colony, which is pushing for a ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The contested waters are believed to be rich in oil and gas.
China accuses the US of interfering in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea. Washington accuses Beijing of carrying out "a land reclamation program" in the disputed territory.
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