{"id":1524,"date":"2014-02-06T06:50:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T14:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.244.209\/~canadiu3\/?p=1524"},"modified":"2014-02-06T06:58:38","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T14:58:38","slug":"us-concerned-china-is-gradually-asserting-control-in-disputed-asian-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/02\/06\/us-concerned-china-is-gradually-asserting-control-in-disputed-asian-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"US concerned China is gradually asserting control in disputed Asian waters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo from Meshaphoto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014The U.S. voiced concern Wednesday that China is gradually asserting control in the disputed South China Sea on the basis of vague territorial claims unsupported by international law.<\/p>\n

Sharpening U.S. criticism of the rising Asian power, Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, described in congressional testimony a litany of actions by China that are raising tensions.<\/p>\n

Russel said China has restricted access to a contested reef in the South China Sea; taken bids on areas far from its own shores for hydrocarbon exploration; and imposed fishing regulations in disputed waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a growing concern that this pattern of behaviour in the South China Sea reflects an incremental effort by China to assert control over the area contained in the so-called \u2018nine-dash line,\u2019 despite the objections of its neighbours,\u201d Russel said, referring to the map markings used by China to depict its maritime territorial claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny use of the \u2018nine-dash line\u2019 by China to claim maritime rights not based on claimed land features would be inconsistent with international law,\u201d he said, urging China to clarify or adjust its claim.<\/p>\n

Using less diplomatic language, Republican Rep. Matt Salmon said China\u2019s approach seemed to be, \u201cwe\u2019re going to see what we can get away with, and if the U.S. has the guts, the cojones, to challenge us.\u201d Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly said from a distance it looks like China is \u201cpicking a fight with Vietnam, with the\u00a0Philippines, with Japan, among others.\u201d<\/p>\n

China cites a historical basis for its South China Sea claims. According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service, the nine-dash line covers roughly 80 per cent of those resource-rich waters, which are dotted with reefs and islands subject to multiple disputes, also involving the\u00a0Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The U.S. says it takes no position on the competing sovereignty claims, but says it has a national interest in peaceful resolution of the disputes and in freedom of navigation and commerce. Russel said that agreement between China and\u00a0Southeast Asia\u2019s regional bloc on a code of conduct to regulate behaviour in the South China Sea is long overdue.<\/p>\n

China has been reluctant to discuss territorial disputes with the bloc, although there has been tentative progress on negotiating the code in the past year.<\/p>\n

Russel also voiced concern about the \u201cserious downturn\u201d in relations between China and Japan, a close U.S. ally.<\/p>\n

He criticized China\u2019s \u201cprovocative\u201d declaration of an air defence identification zone over the East China Sea and a spike in \u201crisky activity\u201d by China near uninhabited islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. He said the U.S. supported Japan\u2019s call for diplomacy and crisis management procedures to avoid a dangerous incident.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s foreign minister will meet with Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on Friday.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s prime minister recently angered China and drew a rare U.S. expression of disapproval for visiting a controversial war shrine in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans took issue with the Obama administration at Wednesday\u2019s hearing, saying its attempt to refocus U.S. foreign policy toward Asia lacked substance and that it had failed to reassure allies there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Asia-Pacific region is the future. It\u2019s the driver of the global economy and will make our break our geopolitical role in the world,\u201d said Steve Chabot, Republican chair of the House subcommittee overseeing U.S. policy toward the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014The U.S. voiced concern Wednesday that China is gradually asserting control in the disputed South China Sea on the basis …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":1535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-w","mauthors-matthew-pennington","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}