‘Freedom of navigation in South China Sea not a problem’

Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Secretary of State John Kerry wouldn’t give details of any draft proposal, which would punish North Korea for its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch that violated UN Security Council resolutions.

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

China on Wednesday complained the media were ignoring radars and weapons deployed by other claimants in the South China Sea, and unfairly targeting China, following reports of its deployment of fighter jets and radars in the disputed waterway, Reuters reports.

Capt. Darryn James, U.S. Pacific Command, did not confirm the report but said China has deployed some of its most advanced fighter aircraft to that island over the last couple of years.

On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry struck a combative tone ahead of Wang’s visit by saying China’s South China Sea military deployments are no different from USA deployments on Hawaii.

The presence of high-powered radar would be the latest twist to the drama developing in the South China Sea, a 1.3 square mile stretch of water and island chains that is being contested by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Others will not participate being they don’t have the ships or planes, “internal politics” or “their relationship with China”.

Tensions have been high in the region where the United States has maintained the right to freedom of navigation amid China’s ongoing island building and missile deployment.

He said if China is truly concerned, it should intervene with North Korea and convince it to quit its cycle of provocations.

China and the United States have so far found it hard to reach an agreement on how to respond to North Korea’s nuclear test on January 6.

“The islands in the South China Sea have been China’s territory since ancient times, and China has the right to safeguard its territorial sovereignty”, Wang said at a joint press conference with his USA counterpart John Kerry after a hours-long bilateral talk.

The images released by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) appeared to show a high-frequency radar installation going up on Cuarteron Reef, The Washington Post reported earlier yesterday.

Harris said that China was militarising the South China Sea, “and you have to believe in a flat Earth to think otherwise”.

The nine-dash line refers to maps used since 1947 by China and Taiwan to claim certain islands in the region.

Wang also said Beijing would be willing to work with the Association of South East Asian Nations toward a binding code of conduct for the area, something that has eluded the group for years.

When asked to asses U.S.-China relations, Foreign Minister Wang said China’s relationship with the U.S. was hard to explain.

A couple of U.S. Navy operations close to disputed land since October have already riled Beijing.

“It’s important to notice that in recent decades some countries have illegally occupied China’s reefs and atolls and have engaged in large-scale military constructions not only of radars, but also of missiles and all kinds of cannons and artilleries”, he said.

The US claims that China has constructed more than 3000 acres of artificial land on reefs and shoals in the area in the last 19 months.