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 Southeast Asian foreign ministers this week hold security talks
with counterparts, including those from the United States and China,
in Myanmar, with escalating tensions over maritime disputes in Asia
likely to be a major issue.
The Philippines will propose a freeze on all activity that raises
tension in disputed waters in the South China Sea as part of a
three-part plan at the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting, Manila's
foreign minister said last week.
The United States, a close ally and former colonial power in the
Philippines, has also called on all parties to halt activity in the
disputed sea to ease tension.
Manila has accused China of carrying out reclamation work on at
least three shoals in the Spratly Islands, where most of the
overlapping claims lie, especially between China and the
Philippines.
 Yi Xianliang, deputy head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Boundary
and Ocean Affairs Departments, told reporters that China had every
right to build on its islands as a way of improving basic living
conditions there.
"The Spratly Islands are China's intrinsic territory, and what China
does or doesn't do is up to the Chinese government. Nobody can
change the government's position," Yi said.
It was a double standard to bring this issue up now when other
countries had been doing similar things for years, he added.
"Why is it that when other countries wantonly build airports, nobody
says a word? But China has only this year started small and
necessary construction, to raise living conditions on the islands -
and so many people raise doubts."
Hong Kong media have reported that China is planning to build an air
base on Fiery Cross Reef, though Yi said he was unaware of any such
plans.
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Yi said that proposals for a "freeze" on tension-raising activities
were not helpful, and could be seen as an effort to undermine
drawn-out efforts by China and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) for a code of conduct in the South China Sea by
acting as a replacement for the code.
If the United States had come up with such a proposal then he had
not seen it, Yi said, adding that in any case the South China Sea
was an issue for those countries directly involved.
"Trust in us Asian people to use Asian means and wisdom to resolve
our own problems," he said.
China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to
contain oil and gas deposits and has rich fishery resources. Brunei,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also lay claim to
parts of the sea, where about $5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes
every year.
China's placing of an oil rig in waters also claimed by Vietnam
around the Paracel Islands in May added to regional concerns about
China's intentions. However, China removed the rig last month.
(Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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