Source: GlobalPost
Kyodo News International
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
The United States warned Saturday it will not tolerate attempts by any country to change the status quo in the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and islands claimed by some Southeast Asian countries and Taiwan in the South China Sea.
“The United States stands firmly against any coercive attempts to alter the status quo,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a speech at the Asia Security Summit in Singapore, an apparent reference to China’s recent assertiveness over the Senkakus and disputed islands in the South China Sea such as the Spratlys.
Hagel also expressed concern about cybersecurity, saying the Chinese government and military are apparently linked to a growing threat of cyber-intrusions and urging Beijing to cooperate with Washington to tackle this problem.
He further suggested the establishment of “international norms of responsible behavior in cyberspace” in partnership with China and other countries.
Hagel made the calls ahead of a June 7-8 summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in California that will be their first meeting since Xi became head of state in March.
The annual Singapore forum, which opened Friday evening for a three-day run, brings together defense ministers and officials mainly from the Asia-Pacific.
Participants are watching what Chinese delegation head Lt. Gen. Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, will say about the U.S. “rebalance” toward Asia, about North Korea and about Beijing’s territorial claims in the East and South China seas.
China is cautious about Washington’s strategic reengagement with the Asia-Pacific region after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, suspecting it could be a U.S. attempt to contain a rising, assertive China.
Speaking later, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said his country “welcomes” and “supports” U.S. rebalance toward Asia to ensure regional stability, and that Tokyo will maintain the status quo in the Senkaku Islands, which it has managed for decades.
Using its growing influence, China wants to address issues involving the Senkakus, which it calls Diaoyu, and the South China Sea bilaterally with relevant countries without involvement from the United States or other outside forces.
The United States takes no particular position on sovereignty over the Senkakus or in the South China Sea, but it strongly believes incidents and disputes should be settled “in a manner that maintains peace and security, adheres to international law, and protects unimpeded lawful commerce, as well as freedom of navigation and overflight,” Hagel said.
“In the South China Sea, the United States continues to call on all claimants to exercise restraint as they publicly pledged in 2002, and to seek peaceful means to resolve these incidents,” he said.
The Pentagon chief said he is inviting defense ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Hawaii next year for what will be the first U.S.-hosted meeting of ASEAN defense chiefs to discuss “a shared vision for a dynamic, peaceful and secure future for the region.”
Referring to recent actions by North Korea, Hagel said, “The United States will not stand by while North Korea seeks to develop a nuclear-armed missile that can target the United States.”
And he vowed to “significantly bolster” missile defense throughout the Pacific to protect the United States and its allies from North Korea’s “dangerous provocations.”
“No country should conduct ‘business as usual’ with a North Korea that threatens its neighbors,” he said.
==Kyodo
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Shangri-La Dialogue: Hagel sends big warning to China
By Chua Chin Hon, Deputy Foreign Editor
Strait Times (Singapore)
Strait Times (Singapore)
There are generally two schools of thought about how best to deal with China when difficult or politically sensitive problems arise. — ST FILE PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
SINGAPORE – There are generally two schools of thought about how best to deal with China when difficult or politically sensitive problems arise.
The first is the softly-softly approach, one that believes quiet diplomacy behind the scenes will “save face’’ and in the process, produce an amicable solution.
The other course of action suggests, however, that only persistent and very public pressure will compel Beijing to sit up and take real action.
On the growing issue of trans-national cyber intrusions, the United States has undoubtedly decided to go the second route in a big way.
At the annual Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered one of the most public warnings yet to Beijing about American concerns over alleged Chinese hacking attempts.
“The US has expressed our concerns about the growing threat of cyber intrusions, some of which appear to be tied to the Chinese government and military,” Mr Hagel told a room packed with top defence officials from the region and beyond, including representatives from China’s People’s Liberation Army.
In recent weeks, the US media has also stepped up a steady drumbeat of stories about the threat from Chinese hackers.
The most prominent one was a Washington Post report this week which cited a classified section of an independent report that said Beijing had used cyber attacks to glean data from nearly 40 US weapons programmes and nearly 30 other defence technologies.
Chinese officials have repeatedly refuted these allegations, insisting that China is itself the victim of cyber attacks.
These flat denials just won’t do it anymore for the Obama administration, if the very concerted public campaign being waged by the US on this issue is any indication.
Prior to his arrival in Singapore, Mr Hagel acknowledged that public pressure rarely resolves an issue on its own, but that the problem has gotten to the stage where it can’t be soft-pedalled anymore.
“It’s pretty hard to prove that (the cyber attacks) are directed by any specific entity,’’ Mr Hagel told reporters travelling with him.
“But we can tell where they come from. And I think we’ve got to be honest about that. I think we’ve got to let people know that.’’
Will this tactic work? More importantly, if the public warnings don’t bring results, will the US take some form of retaliatory action in response to the alleged cyber attacks?
This will undoubtedly be among the key questions on the table when US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping meet for a rare presidential retreat in California next week.
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