China’s military sharply criticized the US on Monday for holding military drills in contested waters of the South China Sea, a dispute Beijing has warned Washington not to meddle in.
People’s Liberation Army Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde (陳炳德) said that if the US really wanted peace in the South China Sea, then the timing of its recent military exercises in the region was poor.
“The US has said many times that it does not intend to get involved in the South China Sea dispute, but ... is actually sending out the opposite signal,” Chen told a joint news conference with the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.
“Despite having conducted them in the past, holding these military drills at this moment is extremely inappropriate,” he said.
China has been embroiled in a row 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 and possibly rich in oil and gas. Beijing has called for disputes to be resolved bilaterally, a strategy some critics have described as “divide and conquer.”
Others, including the Philippines, have urged a multilateral approach, and Manila has staged naval drills with the US in the region.
“America’s global unmanned aircraft have conducted reconnaissance only 16 nautical miles [30km] from China’s border. This is very, very close. I hope our American friends can adopt measures in this regard that will fully consider the feelings of the Chinese people,” Chen said.
The US for its part wants greater military transparency from China over its military modernization, and has warned about China’s growing missile and cyber capabilities.
Mullen later met with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (梁光烈), Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission Guo Boxiong (郭伯雄) and Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), who called for deeper trust between the two militaries, Xinhua news agency reported.
“I hope the two countries’ defense departments and armed forces will remove obstacles and promote their ties with mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation,” Xi said.
Guo urged the US to stop selling weapons to Taiwan.
At the press conference with Chen, Mullen reiterated his earlier pledges that the US would maintain its long-standing military presence in Asia and defended the military drills as in line with international law.
“These flights, these operations, these exercises are all conducted in accordance with international norms, and essentially we will continue to comply with that in the future,” Mullen said.
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