International criticism of China over the disputed South China Sea will rebound like a coiled spring, a Chinese diplomat said yesterday, as other countries in the region took steps to increase their own military and defense capabilities.
China claims almost all of the energy-rich South China Sea, through which more than US$5 trillion of trade passes each year. Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia have overlapping claims.
China’s increasingly assertive moves in the waters, including building artificial islands and air strips, have rattled nerves, with the G7 advanced economies last month warning that they opposed any provocation.
Photo: Reuters
Ouyang Yujing (歐陽玉靖), director-general of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, said China took note of the criticism.
“Of course we are willing to take on board constructive comments and criticism by the relevant countries,” Ouyang told a news briefing in Beijing. “But if they are aimed at putting pressure on China or blackening its name, then you can view it like a spring, which has an applied force and a counterforce. The more pressure, the greater the reaction.”
In a sign of how China’s increasingly assertive regional military presence is encouraging other nations to boost their own defense capabilities, Singapore yesterday agreed to fund an A$2.25 billion (US$1.7 billion) expansion of military training facilities in Australia, a government source said.
Singapore will have enhanced and expanded military training access in Australia over a period of 25 years. The two countries will also strengthen intelligence and information sharing, such as in counterterrorism, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“The kind of military relationships that [Singapore] has and the types of military ties that it is developing and deepening, is does not have with China,” said Richard Bitzinger, a security expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
“I am not saying that this is being done overtly to deal with China, but I would not be surprised if that is not a major driver behind this,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has asked Japan to provide vessels to strengthen its coast guard, a Japanese official said on Thursday.
The request emerged during talks in Hanoi between Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, a Japanese spokesman said.
“Vietnam wants new vessels,” Masato Otaka told reporters, adding that timing, methods of delivery, costs and quantity of vessels had not yet been decided.
Vietnam has been modernizing its military, and recently bought six advanced Kilo-class submarines from Russia.
“Vietnam feels it needs to strengthen its coastguard generally, and that’s why we’ve responded,” Otaka told reporters, adding that the vessel delivery “was not directly linked to the South China Sea.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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