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news: US slams China’s 'wholesale reclamation' of disputed islands 

 

 

 

China’s behavior in the South China Sea is a concern for all Southeast Asian countries, US officials said during recent US-Philippine defense talks.
Speaking at the fifth Philippine-United States bilateral strategic dialogue in Manila, US officials denounced China’s activities in the South China Sea as “wholesale reclamation” of the disputed islands.
China has a number of projects in the South China Sea that include the reclaiming of land, shoals and rocks in disputed areas.
“This is not an issue exclusively for the Philippines and the US but for all 10 ASEAN countries, to see the importance of finding rules-based, peaceful resolution,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said at a news conference over the two-day talks held on January 20 and 21.
According to Russel, the “behavior problems” threaten the stability of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Russel and Assistant Secretary for Defense David Shear led the US delegation in the talks with Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Evan Garcia and Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino.
Garcia said surveillance photographs show China has made "massive" reclamation despite protests from other countries.
"It is massive, just look at the photographs. These are not small adjustments. These are huge activities that are obviously designed to change the status quo," Garcia said, without distributing the photographs to the media.
"Let me add also that the massive reclamation of China in the South China Sea is a clear violation of what we have agreed upon" in the 2002 accord, Garcia said. "It is not helpful in terms of finding a way forward and it is not an example of what anybody would understand as self-restraint."
The two sides said the developments are inconsistent with the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
Russel said China had to clarify its maritime territorial claims with respect to international law.
In May last year, the Philippine government released military surveillance photos of Chinese land reclamation in Johnson South Reef, called Mabini in the Philippines and Chigua in China, in the disputed Spratly chain of islands, reefs and atolls. The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have protested the reclamation.
US unblocks military aid
Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario announced after the strategic talks with the US that Washington had unblocked a small portion of its military assistance to the Philippines.
The $15 million aid that was withheld allegedly over human rights concerns over the last five years is a fraction of Washington's total military assistance to the South East Asian island.
The aid restriction had been lifted "sometime last year," del Rosario told reporters, though he did not explain why it had been lifted.
Washington has provided the Asian island $300 million in military-related assistance since 2001 and would provide another $40 million in 2015 as part of America's support for modernizing the Philippine military, David Shear said.
Manila and Washington have had complicated defense relations, with oppositions in both countries calling for an end to the ties.
The two countries signed an agreement in April 2014 to allow a bigger US military presence on Philippine territory.