China has rejected as malicious and irresponsible criticism from the United States and Japan of its actions in the South and East China Seas and its broader foreign and defence policy. And Beijing accused Washington and its allies of threatening peace and stability in the region by fuelling tensions over maritime disputes.
“They claim to promote regional peace and a rules-based international order but are actually forming blocs, cobbling together exclusionary groupings, manipulating political games and creating confrontations, which are the real threats to regional peace and stability,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday.
The US and Japan agreed on Sunday a new joint military structure in response to what they described as an “evolving security environment”. In a joint statement the two countries’ foreign and defence ministers described China as the greatest strategic challenge in the region.
“The ministers concurred that the People’s Republic of China’s foreign policy seeks to reshape the international order for its own benefit at the expense of others. They highlighted that [China] employs political, economic, and military coercion of countries, companies, and civil society, as well as facilitates its military modernisation through the diversion of technology, to achieve these objectives,” they said.
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There are more than 54,000 US forces stationed in Japan, along with hundreds of aircraft and an aircraft carrier strike group. Sunday’s agreement will see the US reconstitute its military command in Japan as a joint force headquarters as well as a new focus on “extended deterrence” and the circumstances in which Washington could use a nuclear weapon in Japan’s defence.
Article 9 of Japan’s postwar constitution outlaws war as a means of settling international disputes and prohibits the maintenance of armed forces with war potential. But in 2014 then prime minister Shinzo Abe approved a reinterpretation of the article to allow Japanese forces to engage in military action if one of its allies is attacked.
“This will be the most significant change to US Forces Japan since its creation and one of the strongest improvements in our military ties with Japan in 70 years,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said.
China has become more assertive in its territorial claims to a number of reefs and islands in the South and East China Seas over the past decade despite a 2016 UN arbitration ruling dismissing all the claims. Last month saw clashes between Chinese coast guard and Philippine personnel resupplying troops on a naval vessel grounded at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.
Beijing and Manila reached a provisional agreement that allowed the Philippines vessel to be resupplied last Saturday while Chinese coast guard watched from a distance. But foreign ministers from the US, Japan, India and Australia, known as the Quad, expressed concern on Monday about “coercive and intimidating manoeuvres” in the South China Sea.
“We also express our serious concern about the dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels, the increasing use of various kinds of dangerous manoeuvres, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation activities,” they said in a joint statement.
Mr Austin and US secretary of state Antony Blinken will visit Manila on Tuesday as Washington has encouraged the Philippines to deepen its defence co-operation with other allies in the region. Beijing has accused the US of interfering and inflaming disputes in the South China Sea which should be resolved bilaterally.
“Certain extra-regional countries frequently send advanced military aircraft and warships to the South China Sea to show off their power and create tensions,” Mr Lin said. “They claim to maintain order but are in fact preserving the laws and practices concocted by a handful of countries.”
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