South China Sea: Beijing calls for "peace and stability" at ASEAN as tensions mount
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific seas, resisting the growing security threats including those from " forces external to the region" using the Internet and social media to fuel violence and tensions. This was denounced today by the Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan, opening a meeting with his ASEAN counterparts(the Association that brings together 10 countries of South-East Asia) in Beijing. Meanwhile the possibility of direct US intervention in the dispute is becoming an increasing reality, to challenge China’s claims on the seas.
Launching talks Minister Chang urged all participants to work towards a "proper" development of mutual relations. The biggest challenge, he added, is the need to maintain stability and this is why Beijing and ASEAN nations should "strengthen military cooperation”.
In addition, for the minister spoke of " forces outside the region" who are using "Internet, social media and other means to foment attacks on nations of the region, threatening social stability." He did not elaborate on his affirmation and did not - at least in front of reporters, in brief public meeting at the beginning of talks – make any direct references to disputes in the South China Sea that have pit China, against the Philippines and Vietnam.
The rest of the meeting continued behind closed doors and reporters were unable to learn about the other items on the agenda. Unresolved issues include China’s building of airstrips and artificial atolls in the disputed areas; an "imperialist" policy which has accelerated in the last two years. For the United States and the Philippines these islands represent a new threat in the region; and it is possible that Washington may authorize the navigation of its ships within the area claimed by China for its exclusive use, further ratcheting up tensions in the area.
Analysts and international policy experts emphasize the willingness of Beijing to take advantage of international meetings to strengthen its territorial expansionist policy. Li Mingjiang, the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said that "China wants to use this type of forum to promote their ideas, explain policies and improve their image in terms of security."
On the eve of the summit Hanoi spared no criticism of the Chinese government, denouncing the increasingly "aggressive and brutal" policy on the seas, marked by attacks on Vietnamese fishermen and sinking boats.
Yesterday, the Vietnamese government accused Beijing of having sunk one of its vessels near the disputed islands on September29, the last of a series of incidents that are likely to exacerbate tensions between the two (former) communist allies.
In recent years, Vietnam and the Philippines - which has taken its case to a UN court - have shown growing concern over China's "imperialism" in the South and East China Seas. The Chinese government claims most of the sea (almost 85 per cent), including sovereignty over the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands, in opposition to Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. For the United States, which backs the claims of Southeast Asia nations, Beijing's so-called 'cow tongue' line is both "illegal" and "irrational".
Anyone with a hegemonic sway over the region would have a strategic advantage, in terms of seabed (oil and gas) development, but also in trade since two thirds of the world's maritime trade transit through it. Almost uninhabited, the area's islands are thought to hold extensive oil and natural gas reserves as well as other raw materials.
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