The Washington Post reports on China’s response to recent concerns over its stance on the sovereignty of the South China Sea:
“China has indisputable sovereignty of the South Sea, and China has sufficient historical and legal backing” to support its claims, Senior Col. Geng Yansheng, a Ministry of Defense spokesman, told reporters Friday during a visit to an engineering unit on the outskirts of Beijing.
But he added, “We will, in accordance with the demands of international law, respect the freedom of the passage of ships or aircraft from relevant countries.”
Geng’s remarks were in reaction to a push last week by the United States, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries to challenge China’s claims to the whole sea.
In Hanoi on July 23, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told a regional security forum that it was in the United States’ “national interest” that freedom of navigation be maintained in the sea. Clinton also challenged China’s claims to the whole sea, through which half of all shipped merchant tonnage passes each year.
See also “China Conducts Military Exercise in South China Sea” from VOA.
