China Stands by Its Claims Over South China Sea Reefs

By ANDREW JACOBS MAY 16, 2015

Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Beijing on Saturday.CreditKim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

BEIJING — China’s top diplomat, emerging from talks here with Secretary of State John Kerry, suggested Saturday that Beijing had no intention of scaling back island-building efforts in the South China Sea that have aggravated tensions in waters claimed by a number of neighboring governments.

At a news conference, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Chinese claims over a collection of uninhabited reefs off the coast of the Philippines were “unshakable,” suggesting that Mr. Kerry’s message that China help reduce tensions in the region had fallen on deaf ears.

“The determination of the Chinese side to safeguard our own sovereignty and territorial integrity is as firm as a rock,” Mr. Wang said.

Mr. Kerry, on his fifth visit to China as secretary of state, is ostensibly here to discuss plans for a White House summit meeting between President Obama and President Xi Jinping, and an annual gathering of Chinese and American officials that is scheduled to take place next month in Washington.

During their talks Saturday morning, the two men said they had covered a range of issues that both sides have cooperated on in the past: climate change, Iran’s nuclear program and improved military relations between Washington and Beijing.

“There is no question but that our nations share extraordinary opportunities that are looking at us as we build the history of this century,” Mr. Kerry said. “We have a lot to accomplish together in the coming years.”

But China’s ramped-up dredging efforts in the South China Sea, which began after Mr. Xi took power three years ago, have become an increasingly nettlesome issue for Washington. Although the United States does not have a position on the overlapping territorial claims by China and five other governments, it says it is committed to freedom of navigation in the area, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The most recent surge of land reclamation in the atolls and outcroppings known as the Spratlys is 1,000 miles from China’s southernmost point, HainanIsland, but just off the coast of the Philippines, an American treaty ally.

Recent satellite images show that the Chinese have vastly expanded a number of reefs in the Spratlys, and that they are building a concrete runway on one island capable of handling military aircraft.

State Department officials said last week that Mr. Kerry would deliver a tough message to Chinese leaders, although his public comments on Saturday were subdued.

“I urged China through Foreign Minister Wang to take actions that will join everybody in helping to reduce tensions and increase the prospect of a diplomatic solution,” Mr. Kerry said.

The news conference was carefully scripted, with Chinese officials allowing only two questions: one from a Western news outlet directed at Mr. Kerry, and another posed to Mr. Wang by a reporter from China’s state news media.

Mr. Kerry, however, declined to respond to what was undoubtedly the most anticipated question of the day: what were his thoughts on the news that the Pentagon was considering sending military aircraft and ships to within 12 nautical miles of the Spratlys as a show of American resolve.

It was Mr. Wang, however, who responded to the question, broaching the agreed-upon protocol and suggesting that the presence of American military aircraft in the region would have little effect on China’s island-expanding venture. “It is the people’s demand of the government and our legitimate right,” he said.

Kerry meets with Chinese foreign minister(0:46)

Secretary of State John Kerry meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing amid growing tensions on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. (Reuters)

By Carol Morello May 16 at 4:54 AM  

BEIJING — Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi squared off in talks Saturday over China asserting sovereignty onman-made islands it is creating near heavily trafficked sea lanes in the South China Sea.

After a lengthy meeting the two had after Kerry arrived in Beijing, Kerry told reporters he had stressed to Wang that the region needs “smart diplomacy” and “not outposts and military strips” like those Washington suspects Beijing wants to establish on islands it is building from sand dredged from the sea bottom. The United States thinks China is trying to “build sovereignty.”

“I urged China, through Foreign Minister Wang, to take actions that will join with everybody to help reduce tensions and increase the prospect of a diplomatic solution,” Kerry told reporters in a news conference.

Wang reiterated the Chinese position that “China’s development of some of the islands and reefs . . . falls fully within the scope of China’s sovereignty.”

Amid reports that the Pentagon is considering sending ships and planes to expand its patrols near the new islands, Wang said China would act to protect its interests.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, center right, and US Secretary of State John Kerry, center left, hold a meeting at Zhongnanhai Leadership Compound in Beijing Saturday. (Pool/Reuters)

“We reaffirm the determination of the Chinese side to safeguard our own sovereignty and territorial integrity is as firm as a rock, and it is unshakable,” he said. “It is the request from our people on their government, as well as a legitimate right of ours.”

Wang stressed that China is committed to international freedom of navigation that the United States fears may be in jeopardy and to negotiating to settle claims five other nations have to the disputed waters.

As for its differences with the United States, Wang added, “It is okay to have differences, as long as we can avoid misunderstanding, and even more importantly, avoid miscalculation.”

China’s state-run media has been more blunt about U.S. criticism of the islands. It has portrayed China’s construction of facilities in the South China Sea as part of Beijing’s obligation as the major power in the region to safeguard maritime safety.

China has insisted it is primarily interested in building facilities so it can better protect ships from piracy and fishermen during typhoon season, though it has acknowledged they would have some military use as well.

In an editorial Thursday, the state-run Global Times said the U.S. threat to expand its patrols near the new islands was a provocation that could turn the South China Sea into “a powder keg.”

“It should keep in mind that China is a major power with nuclear weapons, and there is no way that U.S. forces can take reckless actions in the South China Sea,” it said, and added, “Besides, the long-term chaos will eventually deprive the U.S. of its patronage to other countries in the region, which will only be victimized by the war.”

The top item on Kerry’s agenda during his two-day visit to Beijing is laying the groundwork for a planned state visit by President Xi Jinping this fall. But his trip coincides with a series of sharp verbal salvos over the South China Sea, which half the merchant ships in the world traverse every year.

The tensions stem from a huge land reclamation project that has China aggressively creating islands atop rocks, atolls and submerged reefs. Some of the new islands are large enough to support airstrips and military facilities, and the United States is worried that China, by extending its territorial claims, will also claim exclusive economic zones on the reclaimed islands in areas that are contested by five other nations.

“Ultimately, no matter how much sand China piles on top of a submerged reef or shoal, it is not affecting its territorial claim,” said a senior State Department official last week, speaking on the condition of anonymity under agency rules. “You can’t build sovereignty.”

The official said that in his talks with top Chinese officials, including Xi, Kerry would stress the “very negative consequences” of China’s assertiveness in the disputed waters on its image, on its relationship with its smaller neighbors that also claim rights in the area where China is building “and potentially on the U.S.-China relationship.”

That relationship already shows signs of strain since reports emerged last week that the Pentagon was considering expanding patrols in the South China Sea, venturing within a 12-nautical-mile radius of the islands rising from the sea.

Kerry also planned to discuss issues on which Beijing and Washington can cooperate, including climate change and the Iran nuclear talks.

As a member of the U.N. Security Council, China is one of the five countries that are negotiating partners with the United States as it seeks a deal that would curb Iran’s nuclear program, although it has not been actively involved in talks. Kerry was to meet Sunday morning with Xi before departing for South Korea.