Southeast Asian Nations Urge Restraint on South China Sea Spats

Southeast Asian nations called for
self-restraint on territorial disputes in the South China Sea as
tensions escalate over China's pursuit of its claims to large
swaths of the resource-rich region.

Leaders called on all parties to "refrain from taking
actions that would further escalate tension," in a statement
issued at the end of the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations meeting yesterday in Naypyidaw in Myanmar. They
called for progress on a code of conduct that would seek to
preserve freedom of navigation in the area, through which some
of the world's busiest shipping lanes run.

Disputes are mounting as Asian neighbors push back against
Chinese moves to assert control over the maritime areas. Its
placement of an oil rig near the disputed Paracel Islands led
last week to clashes between Vietnamese and Chinese boats, while
the Philippines detained 11 Chinese fisherman in a contested
area. Vietnamese protested in several cites yesterday against
China's actions.

The escalation risks spilling over to separate territorial
disputes between Japan and China in the East China Sea. Russia
has recently stepped up air patrols around parts of North Asia,
adding to the pressure.

"Japan will surely take advantage of the South China Sea
tensions to advocate its 'China Threat Theory'," according to
Liu Jiangyong, a professor at the Institute of International
Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "Japan will likely
support or aid Vietnam and the Philippines in challenging China
and make the situation even worse," Liu said by phone.

China's actions come after President Barack Obama's visit
last month to Asia to reassure allies of the U.S. commitment to
its strategic rebalance to the region. Still, Obama said the
U.S. was not seeking to contain or control China and, speaking
in Manila, he said the focus of U.S. foreign policy had shifted
from deploying combat troops to "avoiding errors."

'How Far'

"I'm sure some in China are keen to see how far they can
go," said Mark Beeson, professor of international politics at
Murdoch University in Perth. "The big question is whether this
is a coordinated, top-down policy approved by Xi Jinping," or
"whether there's quite a bit of ad hoc policy freelancing by
the PLA and provincial governments," he said, a reference to
the People’s Liberation Army.

President Xi is expanding China's naval reach to back its
claims to the South China Sea that are based on the "nine-dash
line" map, first published in 1947. That claim extends hundreds
of miles south from China's Hainan Island to equatorial waters
off the coast of Borneo. China and Vietnam both claim the
Paracel Islands, and Asean members Brunei, Malaysia and the
Philippines have claims to other areas.

Still, the statement from Asean foreign ministers touching
on the disputes is not a major achievement for the grouping,
according to Beeson. "There's clearly some reluctance on the
part of some members to do anything to upset China and very
little real solidarity or common purpose beyond face saving,"
he said by e-mail.

'Overall Friendship'

The matter isn't between China and Asean, the official
Xinhua News Agency cited Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Hua Chunying as saying May 10.

"The Chinese side is always opposed to one or two
countries' attempts to use the South Sea issue to harm the
overall friendship and cooperation between China and the
Asean," Hua said.

Asean leaders during their meeting talked of the need for
solidarity in promoting the rule of law, according to Philippine
President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Sonny Coloma. They also
expressed their desire for a peaceful settlement of the
disputes, he told reporters. The Philippines has sought
international arbitration for its territorial spat with China.

Foreign Ministers

Southeast Asian foreign ministers separately met on May 10
in Naypyidaw and said afterward in a statement that South China
Sea claimants should "avoid actions which could undermine peace
and stability in the area."

Asean is seeking a code of conduct for the waters, with
talks making little progress since China agreed in July to start
discussions, and China introducing fishing rules in January
requiring foreign vessels to seek permission before entering
waters off its southern coast.

Asean foreign ministers view the tensions as a matter of
"grave concern," Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam told
reporters. "Asean needs to be neutral, but Asean cannot stay
silent," he said. "For the benefit of the entire region, there
has to be peace. There should be no mishaps. Mishaps can easily
get out of hand. And tensions, mishaps, incidents, if they
result in the disputes becoming larger, it's bad for all of
us."

Friendly, Good

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario
said he was satisfied with the Asean statements.

"I think we are united and we are projecting centrality,"
he told reporters yesterday. "I think the expression of the
situation there is descriptive enough."

Vietnam Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh told
reporters the country voiced its concern over the territorial
tensions.

"For us Vietnam we are consistently and persevering in our
contact with the Chinese side at all levels in order to resolve
this issue and in order to request China to withdraw their ships
and their oil rig," he said. "We also treasure our friendly
and good relationship with China and we earnestly desire to
resolve the differences and disputes with the Chinese side in
accordance with international law."

Vietnam Protests

Vietnam on May 7 said Chinese boats rammed its vessels,
fired water cannons and used low-flying aircraft in a
confrontation over the rig close to the Paracel Islands that
both countries claim. China the next day accused Vietnamese
ships of provoking the clash by crashing into its boats.

About 1,000 people marched in Ho Chi Minh City streets
yesterday while hundreds gathered in a public square in front of
the Chinese embassy in the capital city of Hanoi as police
officers watched without interrupting.

"We don't want to have war, but we don't want them to come
here to take our land," said Nguyen Van, a 42 year-old office
worker wearing a shirt with the Vietnamese flag as she spoke in
Ho Chi Minh City before the protest marches started. "We wish
to stand up and protect our land, as our parents did."

The confrontation off Vietnam's coast is the most serious
between the two countries since 2007 when Chinese naval patrol
vessels fired on a Vietnamese fishing boat, killing one sailor.
In 1988, a Chinese naval attack in the Spratlys, which Vietnam
also lays claims to, killed 64 Vietnamese border guards as China
seized seven atolls.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Blake in Naypyidaw at
cblake28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Rosalind Mathieson at
rmathieson3@bloomberg.net
Tony Jordan

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/southeast-asian-nations-urge-restraint-on-south-china-sea-spats/