China hit back on Monday at U.S. criticism that it restricts navigation and overflights in the South China Sea amid a festering marine territorial dispute with some of its neighbors. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.Freedom of overflights and navigation doesn’t mean allowing foreign warships and military jets to violate other countries’ sovereignty and security, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Reuters on Monday, after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused China of restricting such movements in the region last week. China sees freedom of navigation in the region as key because it is an important conduit for trade and natural resources, the ministry said. In June, China said it would soon complete a phase of its reclamation projects, adding it would continue to build facilities on the man-made islands.Ongoing reclamation activities in the Spratly Islands include civilian facilities for the “public good” including hospitals, maritime research institutes, lighthouses and search and rescue facilities, the Foreign Ministry said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry asserted that freedom of over-flights and navigation doesn’t mean allowing foreign warships and military jets to violate other countries.The United States is not only opposing China’s claims on South China Sea but it is also encouraging other regional countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei to make overlapping claims. The nature of propaganda surrounding American position is a clear testimony that it is trying to build a strong case against China, which might be used as an excuse for any ‘collective’ action against Beijing on this account. This is also evident from American insistence that China negotiate the issues involved multilaterally with a bloc of claimants – ASEAN – that includes non-claimants, and, at one point, even offered to mediate. But China’s well-known position is that settlement of the disputes should be negotiated by “sovereign states directly concerned” as stipulated in the 2002 ASEAN-China agreed Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and that non-regional parties should not be involved. Despite US provocations, we are confident that China has the vision and capability to sort out things in a peaceful manner, foiling attempts by its rivals to draw it into an unending controversy.
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