China defends reclamation in South China Sea

The United States recently asserted freedom of navigation in the disputed waters.

China has engaged in a reclamation program that’s dumped millions of tons of sand and coral onto islands and reefs where it claims sovereignty. This is a false argument.

China reacted angrily to Obama’s efforts to bolster U.S. allies in the dispute, as it insisted its construction work in the South China Sea was “lawful, justified and reasonable”.

A few islands in the South China Sea have become the source of tension in the region because of territorial disputes.

As China is building structures on South China Sea, making the regional powers grow increasingly nervous about the Chinese intentions, United States of America has come out strongly against the Chinese “intrusion” in the region. While it opposes any USA military incursion, China sees its own military presence there as justifiable.

“According to Chinese’s statistics, Malaysia remains China’s largest trading partner in Asean with bilateral trade totalling nearly US$102 billion (RM437.62 billion) a year ago”.

“In all of our interactions and during my visits to your countries, I have strived to look at issues through your perspective, which allowed me better insight as to how you weighed your decisions, and gave me a firmer understanding of what each of us can and cannot do”, he said. Rights groups and exiles say they left China to escape its repressive policies, but Beijing says many are on their way to join the Islamic State in Syria. Malaysia has been accused to deporting Uygurs back to China. She declared that the “land reclamation and construction activity that’s undertaken by China and other claimants raises tensions in the region”.

“Building and maintaining necessary military facilities, this is what is required for China’s national defence and for the protection of those islands and reefs”, said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin.

Japan’s threat to engage in naval operations in the South China Sea is particularly provocative, given its history of aggression, colonisation and war crimes in Asia during the 1930s and 1940s. “Is that a trend of militarization?” “Don’t look for trouble”.

It is set to officially launch at the end of this year. Although the ASEAN-East Asia Summit is designed as an economic forum, there was no escaping the pressing security challenges of the region.

The AEC is one of the three pillars of the ASEAN Community, which was created by the signing of the declaration Sunday. The other two pillars are political-security and socio-cultural.

The summit’s host, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, urged his counterparts to step up efforts to realise a vision that many experts view as hard, if not impossible, to achieve. “Now we have to assure freer movements and removal of barriers that hinder growth and investment”. The region’s diversity can sometimes be a hindrance.

There are also other hurdles, such as corruption, uneven infrastructure and unequal costs of transportation and shipping. China’s claims extend into the Exclusive Economic Zones – waters within 200 nautical miles of a country’s coastline – of countries including Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

Aquino said these before the 10 leaders of member-countries of Asean and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the two-day Asean summit held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

“They are terrorists and should be confronted as such, with the full force of the law”.