Alwaght-China on Friday slammed the remarks of a top United States military official on the South China Sea and said Washington plans to extend its hegemony in the region.
"We have noticed that this official is busy making comments on the South China Sea -- sometimes in the US Congress, and sometimes in the Defense Department -- which has given us the general impression that he intends to smear China's legitimate and reasonable actions in the South China Sea and sowing discord. He is finding an excuse for US maritime hegemony and muscle-flexing on the sea," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.
"We hope the official will stop playing up the situation and stop seeking publicity in the region," Hong said.
Hong's remarks at the routine press briefing came in response to comments by US Pacific Command Commander Admiral Harry Harris on Thursday. Harris said he was concerned about the possibility that China might declare an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea, but the US side would ignore such a designation.
"A fallacy remains a fallacy no matter how many times it is repeated, and the truth will ultimately be the truth," Hong said.
What China has been doing in South China Sea, he noted, is to deploy defense facilities on its territorial land in a reasonable and proper way, not "militarization."
Whether China will announce an ADIZ depends on the situation. The general situation of the South China Sea currently is stable, he said.
Late January, China accused the US of seeking maritime hegemony in the name of freedom of navigation after a US warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese island in the South China Sea.
In a provocative move, the guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur passed near Triton Island in the Xisha (Paracel) Islands in the South China Sea. Each year about $5 trillion in trade passes through the sea, which also has large deposits of oil and natural gas.
China has reiterated its sovereignty over nearly all of the energy-rich South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Washington has sided with China’s rivals in the territorial dispute, with Beijing accusing the US of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the contested waters.
