China committed to upholding peace, stability in South China Sea

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Saturday urged the United States to keep its promise of a neutral position on the sovereignty issue and stop harming regional peace and stability. Hua said the South China Sea is not a US concern, so it should act prudently and respect efforts by countries in the region to maintain peace and stability.

Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army

Huang Jing, director of the Center on Asia and Globalization at the National University of Singapore, told Xinhua on the sidelines of the dialogue that the most effective way to solve the South China Sea issue is through negotiations between concerned parties; any attempt to introduce outside forces will only complicate it.

Huang attributed tension in the South China Sea to the current outdated security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, saying the security architecture was established during the Cold War and is U.S.-dominated.

The current architecture "is guided by U.S. alliances such as the U.S.-Japan alliance, U.S.-Philippines alliance, U.S.-South Korea alliance as well as the U.S.-EU alliance," he said, adding that they were set up to confront rather than cooperate, so they' re essentially exclusive, not inclusive, but the world has changed significantly.

Zhao Xiaozhuo, a researcher with the PLA's Academy of Military Science, said U.S. response to China's land reclamation by simply sending more military aircraft and vessels to the region, is not a way to solve problems; on the contrary, it is creating problems.

He said, "The United States is struggling between its rebalancing strategy in the Asia-Pacific and its 'new type' of relationship between major powers, but it's not doing a good job balancing the two, especially on issues related to territory and territorial waters. The United States has created some contradictions which even itself cannot resolve."

Sun Jianguo said China, committed to peaceful development, upholds a national defense policy that is defensive in nature; a more developed and stronger China will bring important opportunities, common prosperity and positive energy to countries around the world.