US President Barack Obama opened a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) with a promise of candid discussion over reports of military buildup by Beijing in the South China Sea.
“We will have candid exchanges about areas where we have differences, issues like human rights, cyber and maritime issues,” Obama said as he sat across the conference table from Xi.
US officials have expressed concern that China’s actions in the South China Sea are not consistent with Xi’s pledge at the White House last year not to pursue militarization of the hotly contested and strategically vital waterway.
Photo: EPA
China claims virtually all the South China Sea, despite conflicting claims by Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and has built up artificial islands in the area, including some with airstrips.
“We do continue to be concerned about militarization in the South China Sea,” said senior Obama foreign policy aide Ben Rhodes ahead of the meeting. “We certainly have seen developments, reports that are not consistent with commitments to avoid and to non-militarize the South China Sea.”
“This will be certainly an important topic of conversation between the two presidents,” Rhodes said.
Washington has since October last year carried out two “freedom of navigation” operations in which it sailed warships within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of islets claimed by China.
Xi spoke of the need to avoid misunderstandings and big disruptions in the “major power relations” between the two countries.
However, Xinhua news agency cited the Chinese leader as saying that “China will not accept any behavior under the disguise of freedom of navigation that violates its sovereignty and damages its security interests.”
After the meeting, the White House released a joint statement promising a series of technical measures to help boost nuclear security, including actions against nuclear smuggling and securing “radioactive sources.”
In Beijing, China stepped up its criticism of the US after a senior US official said Washington had told China it would not recognize an air defence zone over the South China Sea if one is set up.
US officials have expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could prompt China to declare an air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, as it did over the East China Sea in 2013.
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work on Wednesday said the US would view such a move as “destabilizing” and would not recognize such an exclusion zone in the South China Sea, just as it did not recognize the one China established over the East China Sea.
Speaking a day after the Chinese Ministry of National Defense accused Washington of “gesticulating” over the issue, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said setting up an air defense identification zone had nothing to do with territorial disputes.
The decision over setting one up depended on whether China’s air safety was being threatened and the level of the threat, among other reasons, Hong said.
“At present, as I’ve said, the situation in the South China Sea generally speaking is stable,” he said.
Hong also criticised Work for saying China’s zone had no basis in international law.
“The first person to set up an ADIZ was not China, but the United States,” Hong said. “We can ask: what is the basis in international law for the US setting up an ADIZ?”
The US set up a zone in 1950, at the start of the Cold War.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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