Source: Saudi Gazette
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei
BEIJING — China accused the Philippines on Thursday of deliberately stirring up trouble over a chain of disputed reefs and rocks in the South China Sea, saying Manila was “creating trouble out of nothing” over an intrinsically Chinese territory.
Friction over the South China Sea, one of the world’s most important waterways, has surged as China uses its growing naval might to assert its vast claims over the oil- and gas-rich sea more forcefully, raising fears of a military clash.
The Philippines said this week that China planned to occupy the Scarborough Shoal before regional rules on maritime behavior took effect, and had been laying concrete blocks there.
China is due to host talks this month with Southeast Asian countries on a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea which will supersede the Declaration of Conduct, a non-binding confidence-building pact on maritime conduct signed by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2002. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said it was the Philippines which was causing the problems.
“The Scarborough Shoal is China’s intrinsic territory. The Philippines should respect China’s sovereignty,” he told a daily news briefing.
“If the Philippines really is paying attention to, and cares about, the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea, it ought to earnestly stand by, and put into effect, the Declaration of Conduct, and create a good environment and conditions for talks on the Code of Conduct, and not make trouble out of nothing and cause incidents.”
In Manila, the defence department released fresh air surveillance pictures showing Chinese ships and about 75 concrete blocks and what appeared to be pillars at the mouth of the Scarborough Shoal. Four of the 10 members of ASEAN, including Vietnam and the Philippines, have overlapping claims with China.
Critics say China is intent on cementing its claims over the South China Sea through its superior and growing naval might, and has little interest in rushing to agree to the Code of Conduct. — Reuters
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Manila to file protest over structure plans
Source: Business World
THE PHILIPPINES will file a diplomatic protest against China for alleged violations to a sea conduct arrangement even as Beijing has cautioned against “creating trouble out of nothing” over an intrinsically Chinese territory.
“We’re framing an appropriate diplomatic protest,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a budget hearing at the House of Representatives.
The complaint, he added, will be filed “hopefully in the next few days.”
Asked if the protest will be tacked to the Philippines’ arbitration case on the South China Sea with the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, Mr. del Rosario said: “I think that’s a substantive piece of information that we can tag on to our arbitration case and have it worked positively for us.”
Manila filed the case early this year — a move opposed by Beijing — after failing to resolve the dispute through diplomatic means.
The planned protest stems from a disclosure by Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin during a separate budget hearing Tuesday that China had violated the Declaration of Conduct signed by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2002, by allegedly planning to build new structures on Scarborough Shoal, locally called Bajo de Masinloc, off western Luzon.
The Defense department released fresh air surveillance pictures showing Chinese ships and about 75 concrete blocks and what appeared to be pillars at the mouth of the Scarborough Shoal.
Meanwhile, China is due to host talks this month with Southeast Asian countries on a Code of Conduct for the mineral-rich South China Sea which will supersede the non-binding confidence-building Declaration of Conduct.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said it was the Philippines which was causing the problems.
“The Scarborough Shoal is China’s intrinsic territory. The Philippines should respect China’s sovereignty,” he told a daily news briefing.
“If the Philippines really is paying attention to, and cares about, the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea, it ought to earnestly stand by, and put into effect, the Declaration of Conduct, and create a good environment and conditions for talks on the Code of Conduct, and not make trouble out of nothing and cause incidents.”
Four of the 10 members of ASEAN, including Vietnam and the Philippines, have overlapping claims with China.
Critics say China is intent on cementing its claims over the South China Sea through its superior and growing naval might, and has little interest in rushing to agree to the Code of Conduct.
As this developed, the Philippines has called home its ambassador to China for consultations, the Foreign Affairs department said yesterday.
Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary and spokesman Raul S. Hernandez announced Ambassador Erlinda L. Basilio’s trip.
“She was asked to come home for consultations and will return to Beijing in a few days,” Mr. Hernandez told AFP.
Speaking to reporters earlier yesterday, he would not say if Ms. Basilio was called home solely because of the alleged Chinese block-laying. – Kathryn Mae P. Tubadeza, Reuters and AFP
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