NEW YORK—China's ambassador to the U.S. warned
Washington against "anti-China" alliances and a "Cold War
mentality" as Beijing continued to ramp up its objections to U.S.
military activity in the South China Sea in advance of a weekend
meeting of defense chiefs from the U.S. and Asia.
In an interview here with The Wall Street Journal, Ambassador
Cui Tiankai defended China's recent expansion of reefs it claims in
the Spratly Islands to include civilian navigation and some
military facilities, which has spurred objections from neighbors
worried that Beijing intends to militarize the strategically
important region, a major maritime thoroughfare.
He sought, as other Chinese officials have in recent days, to
tamp down the controversy over the area—known by the
Chinese as the Nansha Islands—while putting the blame for
it on the U.S. government, which has called on China to stop its
building activities and tone down its territorial ambitions
there.
"It was very surprising to us that the U.S. has overreacted to
the situation and is escalating the situation," Mr. Cui said. "What
the U.S. is doing is giving rise to a lot of questions in
China….What is the real intention? Is there an attempt
to replay the Cold War in Asia?"
In recent weeks, satellite images have revealed the extent of
China's building on reefs it controls, in an island chain where
Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia also lay
claim to territory that Beijing says historically belongs to China.
The U.S. has responded by exploring options for increasing
surveillance flights and ship deployments in the region, and U.S.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Wednesday called China "out of step
with…international norms."
The issue is expected to occupy this weekend's security summit
of defense chiefs from Asia and the U.S. in Singapore, known as the
annual Shangri-La Dialogue.
Mr. Cui noted that criticism from the U.S. has been rising even
after a recent visit to Beijing by Secretary of State John Kerry,
where the tensions were aired in what the ambassador called a
''very candid, very friendly conversation" with top leaders.
He warned that the recent rhetoric, coupled with the plans for
more reconnaissance flights, threatened to dominate U.S.-China
relations—"the most important bilateral relationship in
the world," he said—despite cooperation on many other
fronts, from trade to fighting global terrorism and climate
change.
He also acknowledged a peril to regional stability from the
territorial tensions.
"If the good prospect of regional economic cooperation is
diminished, everybody will be hurt," he said. "Those are the
consequences. I don't know if people in Washington, D.C. have ever
given serious thought to such consequences."
Mr. Cui said that a theory was developing among some in
China—though he didn't subscribe to it—that the
U.S. was seeking an excuse to ramp up military activity in the
region. U.S. military alliances with other nations aren't seen in
China as sufficient reason for U.S. concerns about China's
territorial claims, he added.
"Those alliances are anti-China in nature if that is the
explanation," he said. "It is most counterproductive and even
stupid to have such anti-China policies….You should not
do anything that convinces people back in China that you are really
directed against us."
He said that although China's purpose on the reefs was primarily
civilian, Beijing wouldn't reassure its neighbors by promising not
to site weapons in the area.
"Why should we do that?" he said. "Most of the imports and
exports of China go through these sea lanes, so stability in the
region is of paramount importance to us. But of course we have to
defend the facilities on these islands and reefs, so what we are
doing is to provide or build up the necessary facilities for self
defense, not for attacking others."
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