Seeing beyond the viewpoint of conflict may be a way out

Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in theSouth China Sea, south China. [Photo/Xinhua]

Neither the Chinese nor the United States military backed off from where they stood in previous exchanges over the South China Sea issue.

Nor was there anything really new in what Chinese and American officials said at the just-concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

What was truly impressive about the three-day dialogue was the willingness both sides demonstrated to not let their divergence over the South China Sea dictate the overall China-US relationship or the discourse on regional security.

That the South China Sea tensions, hot as they are, were not covered in the main planned sessions, but listed only for a side meeting indicated "both China and the US are willing to play down their differences and the host nation Singapore does not want the meeting to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue," as one of the organizers said.

Another bitter spat would have done nothing except widening and deepening the existing rift between the two countries, messing up, if not derailing, the Sino-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue being held in Beijing this week.

Tense as it looks, their discord over the maritime disputes in the South China Sea, in which the US is not a party, remains a very small part of the very big picture of Sino-US relations.

That both Chinese and US officials chose their words carefully while expressing mutual discontent was a good sign that Beijing and Washington want to avoid the usual blame game, and make their communication constructive.

Another encouraging development was Vietnam's invitation for the Chinese navy to visit, along with the two militaries' agreement to "manage and control" disputes. Such gestures of reason and goodwill can go a long way in easing the tensions in the South China Sea and preventing them from sabotaging the otherwise promising prospects for regional cooperation and common prosperity.

Starting from there, Beijing should work to make peace with other claimant parties and find a way out of the present impasse.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha's appeal for countries to "think of sovereignty in less than traditional terms" may sound less than practical at this moment.

But he made an apposite point: "If we look at everything from the standpoint of conflict, we will never be able to see a way out."

Things will be quite different if each claimant country and all the third parties in the South China Sea issue can take this to heart.