China makes South China Sea proposals, slams U.S. ‘provocation’

Beijing has boosted economic cooperation in the region to try to fix ties frayed by the South China Sea disputes, which pit China against claimants such as the Philippines and Vietnam.

But Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon belittled Obama’s remarks as a mere “reiteration” of the USA pivot to Asia that he said should be a cause for concern among Asean countries.

Beijing continues to insist that there is no problem with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

“One should never link such military facilities with efforts to militarize the islands and reefs and militarize the South China Sea”, Liu said.

Meanwhile, ASEAN issued a joint statement on Saturday stressing the need to maintain navigational freedom and flyover rights within the South China Sea. Each year, approximately $5 trillion in trade passes through the South China Sea.

China’s seizure of Panatag Shoal made the Philippines decide to go to the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and ask the tribunal to invalidate Beijing’s claim to nearly all of the South China Sea. “This is necessitated by China’s national defense goal and to protect those islands and reefs”.

The president, along with leaders at the East Asia Summit, adopted the Declaration on Enhancing Maritime Cooperation which promoted peace, stability and security in the region. So far, China has been very obstinate about discussing its territorial claims.

China has been constructing facilities in 7 disputed features in the South China Sea.

Commenting on the regional connectivity, Li said that China will continue advancing the construction of the pan-Asia railway network and do its best to start construction of the railways linking China and Thailand and China and Laos by the end of this year.

The South China Sea was a key topic of the gathering of 18 world leaders at the East Asia Summit. This island was a few 600 miles from China’s coastline.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. welcomed Obama’s reiteration of support for the Philippines but said the United States should have acted more decisively much earlier against China’s incursions into Philippine territory.

In the economic realm, Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants his country to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership alongside ASEAN members Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Brunei. On his presidential watch, a naval vessel from China saw off a survey vessel authorized by the Philippine government to conduct seismic studies at Reed Bank, 80 miles (129km) from the Philippine island of Palawan. The USA president also prodded his counterparts on freedom of navigation and overflights. The United States must be more creative with its superior military toolkit in defending the existing liberal order. The “nine-dash line” clearly disregards the sovereignty of smaller nations in favor of China’s own geopolitical interests.

One-third of global trade flows through the South China Sea. The only party that benefits from the USA negligence of the region’s disputes is China.

Najib was speaking Saturday at the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional grouping of 10 nations that include the Muslim-majority nations of Malaysia and Indonesia.