Amid escalating tension with neighbouring countries over border
disputes, the Chinese government reaffirmed yesterday its commitment for a
peaceful settlement, but insisted that it would not be making territorial
concessions.
"On issues related to
China's sovereignty, there is no room for China to back off," said Luo
Zhaozui, the director general for Asia at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
in an interview with journalists from South and Southeast Asia.
Luo said foreign media reports
accused China of being "excessively assertive" on territorial
disputes because of its rapid economic growth. He disputed this notion, saying
that China was merely responding to provocations.
At the southern part of the country,
China is in dispute with Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan
and Vietnam over maritime borders in the South China Sea, which is estimated to
have oil and natural gas reserves amounting to 17.7 billion tonnes, making it
the world's fourth-largest reserve bed.
Looking north, Sino-Japanese
relations have deteriorated after Japan on September 10 announced it had
purchased a group uninhabited islands in East China Sea called Senkaku — the
Diaoyu in Chinese — from a private owner. China condemned what it claimed was
an attack on sovereignty, but so far has exercised restraint in deploying its
military.
Luo highlighted that in the
north, Japan was not only in territorial dispute with China, but also with
Russia and South Korea. He blamed the situation on "rising right wing
powers" in Japan, among other things.
"The Chinese general public
has been asking whether the government has been too weak and easy too
bully," Luo said.
At the opening of the 18th
National Congress of Communist Party of China on Thursday, President Hu Jintao
said the country must resolutely safeguard its maritime rights and interests
and build China into a maritime power.
Hu added that China should
implement a military strategy of active defence for the new period, expand and
intensify military preparedness and enhance its capacity to accomplish a wide
range of military tasks.
According to a report from Xinhua
news agency yesterday, a high-level maritime interests protection office has
been established recently with heads of the relevant ministries and
administrations on board.
Despite strong domestic pressure
to act tougher on disputing territorial claims, Luo said that China was ready
to engage in creating a consensus through friendly consultations.
Specifically, on the dispute with
the member nations of Asean, Luo said that China would abide by the Declaration
on the Conduct (DoC) of Parties in the South China Sea signed in 2002 that
demands that all territorial disputes be settled bilaterally.
In July last year, signatories
reached an agreement on guidelines to implement the DoC, but recently China has
been stonewalling attempts to start talks on the issue.
"The problem now is that
there are changes in the political will in some parties. In particular, some
countries are trying to make things multilateral and international, and this is
counter to the spirit of the DoC," Luo said.
Andi Haswidi
Business & Investment Opportunities
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