Carter warns China against building ‘Great Wall of self-isolation’

US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has warned China against any provocative behavior in the contested South China Sea but he also advocated greater military cooperation with the Asian giant. China lays claim to more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea and has made expansive reclamation works in the region in recent times.

“We also believe other countries concerned have the same wisdom and the patience to walk on the path of peace along with China”, he said. Stronger bilateral defense cooperation would not result in China’s risk of self-isolation, Carter said.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, overlapping with territory claimed by other Southeast Asian governments.

Third, the South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is not meant to resolve disputes, but to negate China’s territorial right and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea. “China”, he said, “has already been deeply integrated into the worldwide community”.

“The. tribunal has no jurisdiction over China”.

The South China Sea has become a hotly contested issue for the US and China. “Indeed, America’s alliances and partnerships in the region give us an enduring competitive advantage”, Mahnken said by email from Washington.

Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, south China.

According to the South China Morning Post, one of the priorities during Monday’s dialogue would be to find ways to contain the rising tensions between two of the world’s biggest economies. “And I think it is in the interest of everyone, including China, to ensure that the peace remains in this region”.

“While we do not take position on territorial disputes, which should be resolved peacefully without the threat or use of force, we firmly uphold freedom of navigation and all flight in accordance with global law, in particular the United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea”. China reached a four-point consensus with Brunei, Cambodia and Laos on the South China Sea issue in April, in a development analysts say exposes fault lines in the 10-nation bloc.

China hit out at United States “provocations” and said it does not fear “trouble” over its territorial disputes with neighbours in the South China Sea.

Sun denied such concerns should be focussed on China. “By contrast, China’s actions have increasingly isolated it”.

“These actions…are destabilizing and self-isolating”, Carter added.

Though Carter has mentioned these other non-U.S. initiatives before, emphasizing them as parts of a broader principled security network alongside American-led ones preempts criticisms - however unfair they may be - that Washington is merely advancing a US -centric order or is undermining ASEAN centrality by promoting its own alliances and partnerships.

The US response to the Chinese plans was swift and firm. Despite these assurances, China fielded J-11 and JH-7 combat aircraft, along with HQ-9 surface-to-air missile batteries, on Woody Island in the Paracels.

Zheng Zeguang, the vice foreign minister of China, made the remarks on Thursday during a warm-up forum for the upcoming dialogue in Beijing, CRI English reported. “They’re great powers and we respect that”, he said. Oil and gas shipments from the Middle East travel directly through the area on their way to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

Chinese fishermen had historically lived on Itu Aba year-round, and fished, dug wells, cultivated plants and constructed buildings, all evidence that it was an island capable of sustaining human life and economic activity, Hua said.