China blasts PH anew on Spratlys claim

BEIJING—China stepped up criticism of the Philippines in a fresh exchange of invectives over disputed waters, calling on Manila to stop infringing its sovereignty with irresponsible claims over the Spratlys.

“China demands that the Philippines stop unilateral actions that damage China’s sovereignty and interests at sea and could lead to the expansion and complication of the South China Sea dispute, and stop issuing irresponsible comments that are inconsistent with facts,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei.

Malacañang shrugged off the Chinese statement.

“We are very careful in crafting these statements and we see to it that we back up our statements and base it on facts,” President Aquino’s deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters in Manila on Wednesday.

“We stand by what we believe in and what is ours,” she added.

The comments, posted on the ministry’s website on Tuesday, were China’s most vitriolic in weeks of tension as the Philippines denounced what it said was the increasing assertiveness of Chinese ships in the region. It also cited the United States’ stake in the stability and security of the world’s second-busiest sea lane.

Hong said China had stood by its position for centuries. He said conducting missions and patrols by Chinese vessels in waters under Chinese jurisdiction was “completely reasonable.”

Diplomatic solution

“President Aquino has also already said that we are preparing reports on these alleged incursions and that we want to present them to the appropriate body,” Valte said.

Asked if the Chinese statement would affect Mr. Aquino’s plan to report the intrusions to the United Nations, Valte said, “It will not hold us back as far as we still reiterate our stand that we will handle these conflicts in the most diplomatic way possible.”

China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim territories in the South China Sea, which covers an important shipping route and is thought to hold untapped oil and gas reserves.

China claims most of the sea, some 1.7 million square kilometers, including the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.

6 incidents of intrusions

Manila has accused China of intrusions into its territory, citing six instances, including one in March when two Chinese patrol boats tried to ram a Philippine survey ship.

Vietnamese officials have also complained about Chinese activity in the contested waters, accusing Chinese patrol boats of harassing an oil-exploration ship conducting a seismic survey 120 kilometers off Vietnam’s south-central coast.

One incident this month, in which Chinese vessels placed a buoy and posts in a part of the sea it claims, spurred protests in the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.

Hong said China was willing to negotiate directly with the Philippines to “seek an appropriate resolution to the relevant dispute.”

Aircraft carrier

The Chinese blast against the Philippines came amid reports that China could launch its first aircraft carrier this year, a year earlier than US military analysts had expected.

The Hong Kong Commercial Daily on Wednesday reported that a top Chinese general had confirmed that Beijing was building an aircraft carrier, marking the first acknowledgement of the ship’s existence from China’s secretive military.

In an exclusive interview, the newspaper quoted Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as saying the 300-meter refurbished Soviet carrier “is being built, but it has not been completed.”

He declined to elaborate although there has been wide speculation that the vessel was nearly finished after the ship, then called the Varyag, was reportedly purchased in 1998. It is currently based in the northeast port city of Dalian.

The ship, which an expert on China’s military has said would be used for training and as a model for a future indigenously built ship, was originally built for the Soviet Navy. Construction was interrupted by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

End of month launch

The Hong Kong paper quoted anonymous sources as saying the carrier would be launched by the end of June at the earliest.

Qi Jianguo, assistant to the chief of the PLA’s general staff, told the newspaper that the carrier would not enter other nations’ territories, in accordance with Beijing’s defensive military strategy.

“All of the great nations in the world own aircraft carriers—they are symbols of a great nation,” he was quoted as saying.

Despite its growing naval might, China says it poses no threat to its neighbors and that its long-term double-digit increases in military spending are in line with overall growth.

Clashes with Tokyo

In addition to China’s claims in the South China Sea, Beijing has clashed with Tokyo over the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, located in the East China Sea.

In April, Adm. Robert Willard, head of the US Pacific Command, said China’s Navy had adopted a less aggressive stance in the Pacific after protests from Washington and other nations in the region.

The PLA—the largest army in the world—is hugely secretive about its defense programs, which benefit from a big military budget boosted by the nation’s runaway economic growth. Reports from Reuters, AFP and Norman Bordadora in Manila