Philippines - China wants Asia-Pacific countries to handle own affairs

Manila, Philippines - China wants Asia-Pacific countries to handle Asia-Pacific affairs and for various sides to work to maintain and promote peace, stability and development in the region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin called on the United States to respect China’s interests and concerns in Asia-Pacific.

“We welcome a constructive role played by the US in the Asia-Pacific, and we hope it will respect interests and concerns of various sides, including China,” he said.

“We hope that the US will work with China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region to build together a region of greater stability and prosperity.”

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Asia-Pacific will continue to be emphasized as one of the key strategic priorities of the US.

Liu said US and Chinese leaders have reached a common understanding on developing a relationship between emerging and established major countries featuring mutual benefit and sound interactions.

“This is an undertaking with no precedent to follow, yet under the new circumstances in the 21st century, China and the US must blaze the trail of a new type of relationship between major countries,” he said.

China has expressed concern over US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks that its claims in the South China Sea exceeded what the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has permitted.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei was reacting to Clinton’s remarks on China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea when she testified before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing concerning the US accession into the UNCLOS.

China is negotiating with ASEAN countries to sign the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and pursuing dispute settlement through negotiations with countries directly concerned, he added.

China had called for limiting the issue of dispute in the South China Sea within claimant countries.

It opposes any involvement and display of leadership role by a third party in the South China Sea claims and dispute.

Hong said the Philippine attempt to draw a third party into interfering or intervening through whatever means in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, also called Bajo de Masinloc, incident will surely escalate the situation and meet with firm opposition from the Chinese side.

The US has been pushing for a multilateral resolution to the South China Sea claims.

China and ASEAN claimant countries need to turn the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) into a legally binding code to prevent clashes and to keep the vast region open to commerce, the US said.

Pia Lee-Brago

The Philippine Star

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