SINGAPORE—The United States on Saturday called for an “immediate and lasting halt” to reclamation works in disputed waters in the South China Sea, saying Beijing’s behavior in the area was “out of step” with international norms.
“First, we want a peaceful resolution of all disputes. To that end, there should be an immediate and lasting halt to land reclamation by all claimants,” US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told a high-level security conference in Singapore.
“We also oppose any further militarization of disputed features,” he said, stressing that US forces would continue entering what he called international waters and airspace in the tense region.
READ: US anxious over China’s ‘great wall of sand’
Carter, speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue involving defense ministers and top military officials from China, Europe and other Asia-Pacific countries, added that “with its actions in the South China Sea, China is out of step with both the international rules and norms.”
He acknowledged that other claimants have developed outposts of differing scope and degree, including Vietnam with 48, the Philippines with eight, Malaysia with five and Taiwan with one.
“Yet, one country has gone much farther and much faster than any other. And that’s China. China has reclaimed [800 hectares], more than all other claimants combined and more than in the entire history of the region. And China did so in only the last 18 months,” Carter said.
“It is unclear how much farther China will go. That is why this stretch of water has become the source of tension in the region and front-page news around the world,” he said.
READ: US-China exchange highlights tension over disputed sea
Weapons on islands
Carter’s comments came after US defense officials disclosed on Friday that China had put two large artillery vehicles on one of the artificial islands it was building in the South China Sea.
The discovery, made at least several weeks ago, fuels fears in the United States and across the Asia-Pacific region that China will try to use the land reclamation projects for military purposes.
READ: US says China has artillery vehicles on artificial island
Two US officials who are familiar with intelligence about the vehicles said the weapons had been removed.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the intelligence and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon would not release any photos to support its contention that the vehicles were there.
Pentagon spokesperson Brent Colburn said the United States was aware of the artillery, but he declined to provide other details, saying it was an intelligence matter.
Defense officials described the weapons as self-propelled artillery vehicles and said they posed no threat to the United States or American territories.
Those officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
The sighting was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
On PH-claimed islands
Mira Rapp Hooper, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, which monitors developments in the South China Sea, said on Friday that analysts have previously identified artillery on at least two of the Chinese land reclamation sites in the Spratly island chain: the Philippine-claimed Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross Reef) and Burgos Reef (one of two in a group internationally known as Gaven Reefs).
Vietnam’s deputy defense minister said on Saturday that the reports about the weapons, if true, were a very worrying development.
“If it has actually happened, it is a very bad sign for what is already a very complicated situation in the disputed South China Sea,” Gen. Nguyen Vinh told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the forum in Singapore.
Vinh said he wanted all of the international community to work together to put a halt to China’s reclamation activities in the South China Sea.
“I always hope that the international community will always be responsible for the peace, stability and development of the region and not ignore that act of violating international law,” he said.
‘Be calm, rational’
Asked about the reports of weapons on the artificial islands, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said she was “not aware of the situation you mention.”
She also scolded Carter, saying the United States should be “rational and calm and stop making any provocative remarks because such remarks not only do not help ease the controversies in the South China Sea, but they also will aggravate the regional peace and stability.”
READ: US told: ‘No one has the right to instruct China what to do’
US officials have been watching the rapidly expanding land reclamation by China, which is estimated to total more than 800 hectares, in the South China Sea.
In the past year, the United States has escalated its criticism of China’s claim to virtually all of the resource-rich South China Sea, saying it is unsupported by international law.
Beijing’s expansive claim to the waters and reefs overlap those of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Freedom of navigation
While the United States is not a claimant, it says it has a national interest in a peaceful resolution of the territorial disputes and freedom of navigation.
Last June, the United States called for a freeze on construction work in disputed areas, but Beijing only increased its land reclamation.
In recent months, commercial satellite imagery has put a spotlight on the rapid expansion of artificial islands, mostly in the Spratlys.
In its annual report on China’s military power earlier this month, the Pentagon warned that five emerging outposts could be used for surveillance systems, harbors, an airfield and logistical support.
Last week the Chinese military ordered a US Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft to leave an area above the heavily disputed Spratly islands. But the American plane ignored the demand.
‘US will not be deterred’
“There should be no mistake: the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as US forces do all around the world,” Carter said in Singapore on Saturday.
“America, alongside its allies and partners in the regional architecture, will not be deterred from exercising these rights—the rights of all nations. After all, turning an underwater rock into an airfield simply does not afford the rights of sovereignty or permit restrictions on international air or maritime transit,” he said.
During a question and answer session after Carter’s speech, a Chinese military official said the criticism was “groundless and not constructive.”
“Freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is not at all an issue because the freedom has never been affected,” said Senior Col. Zhao Xiaozhuo from China’s Academy of Military Science.
Chinese delegation head Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the general staff department at the People’s Liberation Army, was scheduled to address the forum on Sunday.
Sun and Carter spoke cordially on the sidelines before a luncheon at the forum, an AFP photographer said.
“Freedom of navigation should be for the benefits of economic development, rather than sending military aircraft and vessels everywhere,” Rear Adm. Guan Youfei, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of China’s Ministry of National Defense, said in response to Carter’s comments, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua.
Code of conduct
Beijing has defended its dredging work in the contested waters and accused Washington of singling out China over an activity that other countries in the region are also engaged in.
China insists it has sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, a major global shipping route believed to be home to a wealth of oil and gas reserves.
In his speech, Carter urged China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to adopt a “code of conduct” in the disputed waters this year.
The code is expected to build on a nonbinding 2002 pledge by countries with competing claims to respect freedom of navigation, resolve disputes peacefully and refrain from inflaming the situation.
Carter said Washington would “support the right of claimants to pursue international legal arbitration and other peaceful means to resolve these disputes.
The Philippines infuriated China when it filed a formal complaint to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in March 2014.
China has so far refused to recognize the process.
Originally posted: 12:52 PM | Saturday, May 30th, 2015
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