China warns neighbours over territorial disputes

Xi Jinping has warned that China will not tolerate any infringement of its sovereignty or territory, in a speech delivered as the country finds itself embroiled in several territorial disputes with neighbours.

“We will never seek aggression or expansion but we have the confidence to defeat all invasions,” the Chinese president said in an hour-long speech on the 90th anniversary of the founding of the country’s army.

“We will never allow any people, organisation or political party to split any part of Chinese territory out of the country.”  His comments came as Japan mounted a formal diplomatic protest to demand that China stop its renewed drilling operations in the East China Sea.

“It is highly regrettable that China is pressing ahead with its unilateral development in the East China Sea in an area where the border between Japan and China is not yet determined,” said Fumio Kishida, Japan’s foreign minister who is doubling as defence minister until a cabinet reshuffle later this week.

The protest, the first Tokyo has made on the topic since October last year, was lodged with Beijing after Japan confirmed that China had renewed its operation of a mobile drilling rig it suspected was a precursor to a fixed platform. Japan said the operations were occurring in a maritime “median line” that separates the two countries’ economic zones and has been a long-term source of dispute.

China has developed more than a dozen drilling structures — an escalation Japan fears will ultimately draw valuable natural resources from Japan’s side of the median line.

In 2008, in an effort to smooth some of the acrimony, Japan and China agreed to joint development of a gas field in the area but negotiations later broke down.  The Chinese ministry of foreign affairs was unavailable for comment. August 1 is the opening day of fishing season in the East China Sea, where China and Japan have had a long-running dispute over eight rocky outcrops called the Diaoyu Islands by China and the Senkaku Islands by Japan.

Fishing season is associated with a rise in territorial incidents in the area, where fishermen often find themselves inadvertently embroiled in regional tensions.  Beijing is also locked in a territorial stand-off with Indian forces over a small area in the Himalayas claimed by both China and Bhutan, India’s tiny neighbour and long-time ally.

China last week warned it would not soften its stance, advising India to “not harbour any illusions” about its military capabilities. Mr Xi, who has made military reform a key focus of his leadership, has used this week’s PLA celebrations to highlight his control over the country’s armed forces.

On Sunday he addressed Chinese forces at a military base in Inner Mongolia, calling on the PLA to “unswervingly follow the absolute leadership of the Communist party of China”. He has also defanged the armed forces by purging its ranks of several dozen senior officials in anti-corruption efforts, bringing to heel an institution that was powerful enough to challenge his predecessor, Hu Jintao. (ft)

from The Sun News http://ift.tt/2w0VztW
via IFTTT