I'm guessing China won't stop building islands and staking claim in the S China Sea until someone stops her....better to slap her down now or kick the can down the road?
China accuses US commander of using smears to seek funds from Congress
ASSOCIATED PRESS IN BEIJING
PUBLISHED : Friday, 26 February, 2016, 12:01am UPDATED : Friday, 26 February, 2016, 12:01am, SCMP
China’s defence ministry says the commander of US forces in the Pacific smeared China while seeking additional defence funding from the US Congress, in the latest accusation in a war of words accompanying rising tensions in the South China Sea.
On Thursday, ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian strongly criticised Admiral Harry Harris’ testimony before Congress, in which Harris said China was militarising the economically and strategically vital waterway and seeking “hegemony” in East Asia. China adamantly denies such accusations and says Washington and its allies are responsible for raising tensions.
“I have noted that according to media reports, Admiral Harris made his remarks while seeking additional defence budget funds from Congress,” Wu said.
“We don’t interfere in your seeking defence budget funds, but you can’t carelessly smear China while asking for more money.”
In his testimony before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Harris commented on the Chinese armed forces’ construction and extension of islands in the highly disputed South China Sea. China is also adding airstrips, harbours, radar stations and other infrastructure and deploying surface-to-air missiles on some.
Harris described Chinese militarisation as being “as certain as a traffic jam” in Washington. On Tuesday, he told senators that to believe otherwise, “you have to believe in a flat Earth”.
He has also dismissed as “tone deaf” a Chinese government official who compared China’s deployment of defence facilities on land features in the South China Sea to what the US does in undisputed Hawaii.
Wu said Beijing “really needs” its defences in the South China Sea in the face of a militarisation process being pushed by the United States, and could deploy whatever equipment it wanted on its own soil.
“The US is the real promoter of the militarisation of the South China Sea,” defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said. “China’s construction of military facilities on the islands and reefs of the South China Sea is really needed.”
In all, China has reclaimed more than 1,200 hectares of land in the South China Sea as it looks to assert what it contends is its historical right to sovereignty over most of those waters.
Five other Asian governments have territorial claims there.
Wu added that Beijing would send warships to the US-hosted Rim of the Pacific exercise in Hawaii in June and July.
“US-China military-to-military relations are maintaining stable development momentum,” Wu said.
Separately, he said China had begun building facilities to support troops escorting ships off the Somali coast in Djibouti.
[ Additional reporting by Reuters ]
Last edited by Tom007; 27-02-2016 at 09:58 AM.
If Trump wins the Presidency, I wouldn't be surprised if he starts building islands in the S China Sea... big, beautiful islands. Islands much bigger and better than the islands that China built. And he'll get China to pay for his islands. If they refuse, he will slap a tariff on all the made in china junk sold at Walmart
Anyone feeling nervous? Trump's rhetoric all over the Chinese news today...strong words from both sides...