ASEAN’s lack of consensus shows concern over South China Sea

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he would visit an American aircraft carrier in the South China Sea on Thursday as U.S.-Chinese tensions over the waterway escalate.

The US Navy plans to conduct patrols within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands in the South China Sea about twice a quarter to remind China and other countries about United States rights under worldwide law, a U.S. defence official said on Monday.

But a Pentagon spokesman said the visit might not be directly related to recent contentious exchanges between the USA and China about the South China Sea and, that with 50 US naval assets now in the region, it is normal for a defense chief to pay a visit to a ship.

Last week, the USA guided missile destroyer USS Lassen sailed close to one of the China-built islands, flaring up tensions between the super powers over the disputed waters.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing that Washington’s call for Beijing to stop militarizing the South China Sea while sending warships there itself was “an attempt to deprive China of its self-defense right as a sovereign state”.

The United States defense official said several Asean countries also “felt that [it] was inappropriate” to exclude mention of the South China Sea issue from an official statement. In fact, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam all claim sovereignty of Subi Reef. China is Japan’s biggest trading partner and relations between the nations are thawing after turning their coldest in decades over a separate territorial dispute in the East China Sea.

“The Chinese people and military will not stand for any infringements of China’s sovereignty and relevant interests”, Chang told Carter at the meeting, the Chinese defense ministry said.

On Wednesday, Chang said freedom of navigation should not be “hyped up” or used as an excuse for provocation.

A few of the Chinese island construction includes runways, and analysts say sights that were previously merely reefs will be able to house military personnel and hardware.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than US$5 trillion in global trade passes every year.

In a separate speech delivered during a plenary session, Han said freedom of navigation should be guaranteed in the South China Sea and that all parties should abide by “international norms”, while not mentioning China by name.

“I had no expectation there would be agreement”, Mr Carter said, adding that the important point was that the issue was a “persistent topic” of the conference.

That was against the principle of the defense forum and against the existing consensus of the countries concerned.

South Korea and China didn’t discuss the South China Sea disputes at talks between defense ministers of the two nations following the general session.

Mr Carter and his Chinese counterpart both attended the meeting.

As David Bosco hinted in his insightful Lawfare post from yesterday on the US-China showdown in the South China Sea, it turns out that the much-heralded USA “freedom of navigation operation” (FONOP) last week in the South China Sea was conducted according to the rules of “innocent passage”.