President Benigno Aquino. AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–China’s efforts to stake its claim to most of the South China Sea should spark fear around the world, President Aquino told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.
“Does it engender fear? Yes, I think it should engender fear for the rest of the world,” Aquino said in an exclusive interview in Malacañang.
Aquino said China’s reclamation activities on reefs and islets in contested parts of the South China Sea, and other actions to assert sovereignty, threatened access to international shipping lanes and fishing grounds there.
He also warned that, while he did not believe China intended to engage in a military conflict over the territorial disputes with the Philippines and other Asian nations, that was a possibility.
“The question of it escalating to something beyond everybody’s control should be at the top of the minds of all world leaders,” he said.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including areas near the coasts of other Asian nations, using a line that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims.