CHINA, through its foreign ministry, claimed that the United States has encouraged “certain countries’ violation” of other nations’ maritime rights and has become the biggest threat to regional peace and stability.
Wang Wenbin, China Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, made the remark when asked to comment on the joint statement of the US, Japan, and South Korea over the weekend wherein they criticized the “dangerous and aggressive behavior supporting unlawful maritime claims that we have recently witnessed by the People’s Republic of China.”
The joint statement did not mention a specific incident, but on August 5 the China Coast Guard water bombed Philippine vessels on a resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.
“It has encouraged and supported certain countries’ violation of other countries’ maritime rights and sowed discord between countries in the region, which makes the US a disrupter and saboteur of the regional order,” Wang said.
The Chinese ministry spokesman on Monday said China “has indisputable sovereignty over the Nanhai Zhudao (islands in the South China Sea) and the adjacent waters.”
He said China’s construction “on its own territory and China Coast Guard’s action to protect China’s rights and enforce the laws in waters under China’s jurisdiction are legitimate, lawful and beyond reproach.”
Wang said as a state party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China has always abided by international law, including Unclos and does not accept or recognize the illegal arbitral award on the South China Sea (SCS).
The Permanent Court of Arbitration on July 12, 2016 ruled in favor of the Philippines and invalidated China’s expansive “nine-dash line” policy in the SCS which encroached on the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
He said that “in recent years, the US has gone to great lengths to interfere in the South China Sea issue.”
“It has encouraged and supported certain countries’ violation of other countries’ maritime rights and sowed discord between countries in the region, which makes the US a disrupter and saboteur of the regional order,” Wang said.
He said that the US, “together with its allies, frequently conducted military exercises and close-in reconnaissance in waters around China, including the South China Sea, to flex muscles and intensify tensions in the region.”
Source : Manila Times
