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 A senior U.S. defense official said Beijing had made clear as
early as February that it didn't want the South China Sea discussed
at the meeting between Southeast Asian defense ministers and their
counterparts from across the Asia-Pacific in Kuala Lumpur on
Wednesday.
"We've been very clear along with many other like minded countries
that South China Sea language should be included but there are
members who feel differently," said the U.S. defense official,
adding China was the main obstacle.
A draft of the concluding statement being prepared by host Malaysia
makes no mention of the South China Sea, said a separate source
familiar with the discussions, focusing instead on terrorism and
regional security cooperation.
Wednesday's gathering brings together the 10 defense ministers from
the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with
ministers from countries such as the United States, Japan, China,
India and Australia.
The meeting, first held in 2006, is a platform to promote regional
peace and stability.
 It is taking place a week after a U.S. warship challenged
territorial limits around one of Beijing's man-made islands in the
Spratly archipelago with a so-called freedom-of-navigation patrol.
That prompted China's naval chief to warn his U.S. counterpart in a
video teleconference that a minor incident could spark war in the
South China Sea if the United States did not stop its "provocative
acts".
The source familiar with the talks in Kuala Lumpur said Japan had
requested Malaysia "improve" the draft and make note of the South
China Sea.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5
trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia,
Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
STRUGGLING FOR UNITY
ASEAN meetings routinely become a venue for countries such as the
Philippines and Vietnam to argue for a stronger stance against
China's territorial ambitions.
Countries like Cambodia are pro-China while Malaysia has sought to
steer a more neutral path, even though it's a claimant and only last
month its armed forces chief called China's island-building an
"unwarranted provocation".
In his opening remarks to a separate meeting of ASEAN defense
ministers on Tuesday, Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin
Hussein made no mention of the South China Sea.
At a news conference after the meeting, Hishammuddin alluded to the
waterway, saying he hoped countries outside ASEAN would not increase
tension.
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"If the sides cannot find an amicable solution on the way forward,
the patrolling and presence of vessels from China or the U.S. raises
concerns for us ASEAN countries," he said.
China says its seven man-made islands in the Spratlys will have
mostly civilian purposes as well as undefined defense uses.
The U.S. Navy plans to conduct patrols within 12 nautical miles of
the islands about twice a quarter to remind China and other
countries about U.S. rights under international law, a separate U.S.
defense official said on Monday.
"That's the right amount to make it regular but not a constant poke
in the eye," the official said.
Speaking in Beijing, Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's Central
Military Commission told the commander of U.S. forces in the
Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, that U.S. action in the South China
Seas could easily cause "miscalculations" that could threaten
regional peace and stability, China's Defence Ministry said.
But Harris, speaking earlier at a Beijing university, said U.S.
freedom of navigation operations should not be viewed as a threat.
"We've been conducting freedom of navigation operations all over the
world for decades, so no one should be surprised by them," Harris
said, on a trip that is part of regular exchanges that are taking
place between the two navies despite tension over the South China
Sea.
Harris has been highly critical of Beijing's island building in the
Spratlys, saying this year that China was creating a "great wall of
sand" in the South China Sea.
(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Trinna Leong; Additional reporting
by Andrea Shalal and Idrees Ali in Washington, Ben Blanchard in
Beijing and Matt Siegel in Sydney; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing
by Dean Yates, Robert Birsel)
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