Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Thursday, June 23, 2011 2:33 am TWN, AP and AFP

Sponsors
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.

China warns US to keep out of South China Sea dispute

BEIJING/MANILA -- China urged the United States on Wednesday to restrain other countries from provoking Beijing in disputes over contested territories in the South China Sea, warning that Washington risks becoming embroiled in an unwanted conflict.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said it would be best if the United States stayed out of the long-standing disputes, but acknowledged that Washington has an interest in freedom of navigation in sea lanes that are vital to trade.

“If the United States does want to play a role, it may counsel restraint to those countries that have frequently been taking provocative action and ask them to be more responsible in their behavior,” Cui said at a briefing. “I believe that individual countries are actually playing with fire, and I hope that fire will not be drawn to the United States.”

Decades of recurring tensions over rival claims to islands, shoals and reefs in the South China Sea have flared in recent weeks. Vietnam and the Philippines have cited Chinese incursions and provocations in the areas they claim and Beijing has responded by accusing the others of provocative acts.

Cui accused unspecified “other countries” of occupying territory, drilling for oil and gas and endangering fishermen in the South China Sea. But he later suggested he was referring to one country in particular and then said China wanted to avoid conflict with Vietnam.

“China has no intention to get into military conflict with any country, Vietnam included,” he said.

With centuries of enmity with China, Vietnam has encouraged the United States to take a more active role in the dispute. Washington has carefully tried not to pick sides in the territorial claims, which also involve Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia. But over the past year, shared concerns about a more assertive, powerful Beijing have lent new momentum to Washington's ties with Vietnam.

Cui tread a careful line in his remarks, laying down markers Beijing does not want Washington to cross but recognizing U.S. interests in the region. He spoke ahead of consultations with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Saturday in Hawaii on issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

Manila Stands Firm

President Benigno Aquino vowed Wednesday that the Philippines would press its territorial claims in the South China Sea, despite the vast military superiority of its rival China.

Aquino also called on Beijing to follow international rules in seeking to resolve rival claims to the strategically important territory that includes the Spratly island chain, believed to sit on vast mineral resources.

“We are just protecting our rights because if you don't exercise your rights, then you will be abandoning them,” Aquino told reporters.

“If we leave (the South China Sea), then they will just own it,” he said.

Aquino said the overlapping claims, which also include those from Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, should be settled multilaterally under international accords such as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

“We expect China to adhere to that ... We believe the basis for our claim is well-founded, especially under this treaty ratified by so many countries including China,” he added.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

Comments

June 24, 2011 saiyuenho@

Let's face the historical facts: These South China Sea Islands are, until recently, the natural inhabitants of sea birds and fishes. However, since ancient times, Chinese travelers and particularly Chinese fishermen had been fishing in these islands and even stayed there temporary in times of adverse weather. There are even evidence of markers which are of Chinese origins. Hence, other countries have always regarded these islands as China's sovereignty. Only recently, when oil and gas are discovered in some of these islands that countries like Vietnam and Philippines are trying to stake a claim. It is nonsense to say that these islands have ever been owned by these two countries. They are just lying!
Rightfully, these islands belong to the Chinese people who have known and even set foot on these islands long before Vietnam and Philippines dispatch their gunboats. All talks of law of the sea and U.S. intervention are pure nonsense. China will not tolerate interference by alien powers and will be compelled to defend its sovereignty when invaded...period!

June 25, 2011 Leiduowen@

Qu Xing: "We have never sent troops to invade other countries and we have never used forces against other countries." That's an OUTRIGHT LIE. Look at the sixty years of the PRC military history: Korea, the USSR, Vietnam, India, Tibet... those were not friendly neighbor visits but aggressive assertion of China's national interests. Now with this ongoing trend of outward expansion, some hold that China might ultimately try to regain control of everything that it considers as "traditionally Chinese" which in its view includes the entirety of South East Asia.

June 29, 2011 hawaikiki3@

China is no different than Somali pirates. Period!
The US will send their 7th Fleet right in the heart of South China sea. Will see who is the bully this time. Warning: The US Navy is not Vietnam or Philippines, they will sunk all stupid ships shot at them.

September 18, 2011 yuka_gir@

saiyuenho@ wrote:
Let's face the historical facts: These South China Sea Islands are, until recently, the natural inhabitants of sea birds and fishes. However, since ancient times, Chinese travelers and particularly Chinese fishermen had been fishing in these islands and even stayed there temporary in times of adverse weather. There are even evidence of markers which are of Chinese origins. Hence, other countries have always regarded these islands as China's sovereignty. Only recently, when oil and gas are discovered in some of these islands that countries like Vietnam and Philippines are trying to stake a claim. It is nonsense to say that these islands have ever been owned by these two countries. They are just lying!
Rightfully, these islands belong to the Chinese people who have known and even set foot on these islands long before Vietnam and Philippines dispatch their gunboats. All talks of law of the sea and U.S. intervention are pure nonsense. China will not tolerate interference by alien powers and will be compelled to defend its sovereignty when invaded...period!

saiyuenho writes: "Since ancient times, Chinese travelers and particularly Chinese fishermen had been fishing in these islands and even stayed there temporary in times of adverse weather." THAT"S A LIE. Until mid-17th century Chinese did not go that far, as they were not allowed to, only pirates were wandering a bit farther. Even Taiwan was "discovered" by the Chinese pirates ONLY AFTER Dutch and Spanish settled there. Chinese were always settled peasants, not high sea sailors. On the contrary, Vietnamese, Malays, Filipinos, Indonesians were always sea-travelers. Dozens of centuries before the Chinese.

He also writes: "There is even evidence of markers which are of Chinese origins." Markers with Chinese characters are no more signs of Chinese rule than are Arabic coins found in archeological sites of Northern Europe, dated from the 10th century, proof of existing Arabic towns. Vietnamese also used Chinese characters to write their language until the end of 19th century, like Koreans, and like Japanese do until now.

When Chiang Kai-shek was fighting with Mao Zedong he published anything he wanted on his maps. Even now in Taiwan the official maps of the "Republic of China" show Mongolia, parts of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as parts of Russia (e.g. Tuva) as being the parts of the territory of China. And those of the People's Republic of China show parts of India and Burma (Myanmar) as belonging to China. PURE LIES and IMPERIALIST APPETITE. Cartographic aggression is not a proof of whatever.