The US should cease sending ships and planes to South China Sea islands, stop showing off its military might and respect China’s core interests, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) told US Secretary of State John Kerry.
“The world is facing multifaceted challenges and needs multi-party cooperation to handle that,” Wang said on Sunday in a telephone conversation with Kerry, according to a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement. “While the US is seeking Chinese cooperation, it also should respect China’s core interests and major concerns.”
Wang’s comments follow a report in the Wall Street Journal that a US B-52 bomber mistakenly flew within two nautical miles (3.7km) of Cuarteron Reef (Huayang Reef, 華陽礁) in the disputed Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea. China dumped tonnes of dredged sand onto the reef, turning it into an artificial island last year, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, a Web site devoted to tracking maritime security issues in Asia.
The US and China have been at loggerheads since October when the US sailed a warship within 12 nautical miles of an island China built on a previously semi-submerged reef. China’s claim to more than 80 percent of the waters is contested by Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement urged the US “to reflect upon and correct its mistake, take effective measures to prevent similar dangerous and provocative actions from happening and stop doing anything that hurts China’s sovereignty and security interests.”
Bad weather had contributed to the pilot of the B-52 flying off course and into the area claimed by China, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Pentagon spokesman Bill Urban. The Pentagon is investigating why one of two B-52s on a routine patrol unintentionally flew into the airspace, he said.
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense on Saturday said that both B-52s had flown into Chinese airspace on Dec. 10, in a “serious military provocation” that prompted troops on the island to go on high alert and warn the planes to leave.
Wang also requested that the US stop selling arms to Taiwan, which China regards as a province. The US last week said it would sell US$1.83 billion in arms to Taiwan, its first such sale in four years.
The Wang-Kerry conversation followed a unanimous adoption on Saturday by the UN Security Council of a resolution endorsing a political transition to end Syria’s civil war. Wang said China hopes this would be a good opportunity to press ahead with a political solution to the Syrian issue.
The US Department of State has no yet published an account of the conversation.
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
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
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
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