China wants dialogue with United States on South China Sea

The push to militarize the South China Sea comes as North Korea makes headlines with nuclear and ballistic missile demonstrations that threaten to further destabilize the region and potentially trigger an global incident.

The commander of US forces in the Pacific says China’s construction and military facilities are changing the operational landscape in the disputed South China Sea.

Citing U.S. officials, Fox News reported that Chinese Shenyang J-11s and Xian JH-7s fighter jets had been spotted over the past few days by U.S. intelligence on Woody Island in the Paracel chain.

USA officials said it’s not the first time China has placed J-11 and J-7 fighter jets on the island after expanding the runway there in 2014.

China’s Foreign Ministry said ahead of Wang’s visit that Beijing’s military deployments in the South China Sea were no different from US deployments on Hawaii.

Once again, this news likely does not bode well for already rising tensions in the region where Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all hold competing claims to a vast area that China claims as its own, dating back to ancient times.

“Because when you pay attention to what China is deploying, do you also pay attention to other countries which have over the years, on Chinese islands they have occupied, deployed many radars and advanced weaponry?”

“Someone turned a blind eye to the US behavior, but criticized China’s legitimate islands construction over and over again”.

The South China Sea issue is likely to figure high on talks between Mr Kerry and Mr Wang, the other top issue being North Korea.

Tensions in the South China Sea, through which a third of the world’s oil passes, have mounted in recent months after China transformed contested reefs in the Spratly islands. “And the fact is that there have been steps by China, by Vietnam, by others that have unfortunately created an escalatory cycle”. “That is the reason we’ve required all petitioners to stop land recovery, stop development and stop militarization in the South China Sea”.

“It is also noteworthy that it is Washington that is fanning up the flames by flexing its muscles in the South China Sea and by emboldening nations in their territorial disputes with China”, the editorial said.

“We have made it very clear that we are not hungry or anxious to deploy Thaad”, Kerry said, after Seoul and Washington agreed to postpone the start of official talks on the missile defense system earlier that day.

China’s Ministry of Defence said on its microblog yesterday China had established “necessary defensive facilities” that were “legal and appropriate”.

“There have not been any problems with regard to freedom of navigation”, he said, and “no commercial vessel has encountered any problems”.

The US is not a claimant, but says it has an interest in maintaining peace and stability, plus freedom of navigation and commerce.

(Mandarin) “Important progress has been made in the consultations, and we are looking at the possibility of reaching agreement on a draft resolution and passing it in the near future”.