Official reaffirms Chinese stance on South China Sea

At his confirmation hearing, Rex Tillerson-now certain to be sworn in as Secretary of State-implied he would support a blockade of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea.

As Niquet sees it, “Beijing must play a delicate balancing game so as not to go too far in their threats and provoke an American intervention” with unthinkable consequences. Even though Xi’s position was orthodox communism and consistent with the populism that is showing itself in the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote and, arguably, in the USA 2016 elections, it was also basically hypocritical in that China itself in practice pursues basic capitalism disguised with a still-red coat.

He said a CSIS study – due to be published this spring – found that in nine cases of the “maritime use of non-kinetic warfare”, China did not always clearly get its way after pressuring neighbors on territorial claims.

The Philippines is chairman of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year and will host its annual meetings, some of which are joined by outside powers including China and the United States. That could potentially set the stage for a serious confrontation with China.

China stressed that although it “upholds the freedom of navigation enjoyed by countries under global law in the South China Sea”, it opposes the “intruding navigation that undermines sovereignty and security of coastal countries”.

On economic and trade relations, he expressed China’s hope for better ties, while reaffirming China’s intention not to have a trade war that Trump had threatened during his election campaign.

Under President Barack Obama’s administration, Washington insisted it was neutral on the question of sovereignty over the islets, reefs and shoals. “Many observers and people are anxious or concerned”. But Trump has hinted that America’s stance might be renegotiated, telling the Wall Street Journal in an interview published January 13 that “everything is under negotiation, including One China”.

Lu also struck back at White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer over his recent comment that Washington would make sure to protect its interests in the South China Sea.

“Our policy is for peace and stability”. A senior Beijing-based trader from a state-owned oil company concurred, telling S&P Global Platts that “China’s oil demand, or crude oil imports, is driven more by the domestic economic growth rather than any other issue”.

The Chinese economy caused a big wobble to the global economy a year ago with concerns that its major stock market was over-valued, public debt was unsustainable and growth was slowing.

“That’s in no one’s interests, that will only do harm to both sides”, he said. It said China’s tongue-shaped “nine-dash line”, which descends over 1,500km from the Chinese coast to encompass almost all the sea (see map), had no legal standing under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which China is a signatory.

Spicer made different comments on the dispute.

China has long maintained that the U.S. does not have the long term strength and consistency to maintain its dominant military and economic position in the western Pacific. The only option is to deploy the military, but at risk of a clash with China, such a move is unlikely.

Eric Gomez is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute.