China urges Australia to be impartial on South China Sea disputes

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is in China this week, meeting with top Chinese diplomats. Beijing has repeatedly and angrily said it will not recognize the case.

She noted that her ministerial counterpart in the past had signalled there would be “public good” from the islands.

“This could be an indication, if there are missiles there, it could be an indication of militarization of the South China Sea in ways that the president of China, that President Xi said he would not do”, Harris said.

The Chinese diplomat says the self-defense facilities that China has built on the islands and reefs in that sea are limited and necessary, and are consistent with self-protection provisions that China is entitled to under worldwide law. “But the point about the surface-to-air missiles is in dispute”.

The United States claims no territory in the South China Sea but has expressed serious concerns about how China’s increasingly assertive pursuit of territorial claims there could affect the vital global trade routes that pass though it.

The subtler approach stems in part from domestic political considerations.

Correctly, Australia’s policy remains unchanged under Malcolm Turnbull.

It is not to say that Bishop has not confronted China on the South China Sea.

“The Chinese people can not understand why the Australian military would get involved, and to be honest, they have less patience to prevent a flare up”, the translated editorial read, according to the ABC.

China claims nearly the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague is due to make a decision later this year on China’s dispute with the Philippines over the territory – but Beijing rejects its authority, even though it has ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on which the case is based. During the press conference, Wang also gave a list of reasons why the Philippines’ arbitration attempt is “invalid and unacceptable, including unilateral moves without consulting China, which goes against worldwide norms, as well as the common sense argument that arbitration applications are usually lodged only when all other means are depleted”.

Japan is hoping that Australia’s appetite for deeper security ties will bolster its bid to sell Canberra a fleet of stealthy submarines.

Meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo before arriving in Beijing, Bishop announced arrangements to deepen military exchanges and joint training exercises, as well as securing a new strategic agreement on the Pacific Islands.

Australia this year will pick the design for a new fleet of submarines in a deal worth as much as A$40 billion ($29 billion).

But the broad alignment of worldwide pressure has seemingly failed to curb China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea.

However, China’s Foreign Minister has hit back, disparaging the blossoming friendship between Japan and Australia.