The US is committed to maintaining its presence in the South China Sea, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said in China yesterday, adding that Washington was worried that disputes over the resource-rich waters could lead to serious conflict.
China has been embroiled in rows with the Philippines and Vietnam in recent months over what each government sees as intrusions and illegitimate claims in the stretch of ocean spanning key shipping lanes.
“The worry, among others that I have, is that the ongoing incidents could spark a miscalculation and an outbreak that no one anticipated,” Mullen said at the start of a four-day visit to China.
Despite unease over China’s growing military capabilities and assertiveness in the disputed waters, US-China military relations have thawed in recent months and Mullen’s trip to China is seen a reciprocal visit for the one by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde (陳炳德) to Washington in May.
That visit marked the countries’ highest-level military-to-military talks since China severed ties early last year over US$6.4 billion in US arms sale to Taiwan.
The US has pledged its support to the Philippines in the South China Sea, which is believed to harbor rich oil and gas reserves, but Beijing insists on handling disputes on a one-on-one basis rather than multilaterally.
Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam all claim territory in the South China Sea. China’s claim is the largest, incorporating most of the sea’s 1.7 million square kilometers, including the Spratly (南沙群島) and Paracel archipelagos (西沙群島).
China and the US broached the South China Sea issue at talks in Hawaii last month and the topic could dominate the agenda at an upcoming meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Indonesia.
The official English-language China Daily newspaper said in an editorial on Friday that ASEAN should not tolerate attempts by outside forces to interfere in bilateral disputes, a thinly veiled swipe at US promises of support for the Philippines and proposed military exercises with Vietnam.
However, Mullen, while emphasizing the US desire to see a peaceful resolution to territorial claims in the South China Sea, also said Washington would not quit the region.
“The US is not going away. Our enduring presence in this region has been important to our allies for decades and will continue to be so,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mullen urged Beijing to use its relationship with North Korea to ensure regional stability, while warning Pyongyang against further provocations.
“North Korea and the leadership of North Korea is only predictable in one sense and that is — if you base it historically — they will continue to provocate,” Mullen told reporters.
Six-party nuclear disarmament talks, grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US have been stalled since the North abandoned them in April 2009. It staged its second nuclear test a month later.
“The Chinese leadership, they have a strong relationship with the leadership in Pyongyang and they exercise that routinely ... continuing to do that as they have done in the past is really important,” Mullen said.
Mullen’s trip coincided with a joint naval exercise with the US, Japanese and Australian navies in the South China Sea that began on Saturday.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS