{"id":31784,"date":"2017-01-13T10:12:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T10:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-china-sea-china-media-warn-us-over\/"},"modified":"2017-01-13T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T10:12:27","slug":"south-china-sea-china-media-warn-us-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-china-sea-china-media-warn-us-over\/","title":{"rendered":"South China Sea: China media warn US over ‘confrontation’"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Blocking China from islands it has built in contested waters would lead to “devastating confrontation”, Chinese state media have warned.}<\/p>\n

The angry response came after secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson said the US should deny Beijing access to new islands in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Two state-run papers carry editorials strongly criticising his comments.<\/p>\n

The hawkish Global Times tabloid warned that any such action would lead to “a large-scale war”.<\/p>\n

Beijing has been building artificial islands on reefs in waters also claimed by other nations. Images published late last year show military defences on some islands, a think-tank says.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Mr Tillerson likened China’s island-building to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that first, the island-building stops and second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”<\/p>\n

China’s official response, from foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, was muted. China had the right to conduct “normal activities” in its own territory, he said.<\/p>\n

Asked specifically about the remark on blocking access, he said he would not respond to hypothetical questions.
\n‘Unrealistic fantasies’<\/p>\n

But editorials in the China Daily and the Global Times were more direct in their comments.<\/p>\n

The China Daily suggested Mr Tillerson’s remarks showed ignorance of Sino-US relations and diplomacy in general.<\/p>\n

“Such remarks are not worth taking seriously because they are a mish-mash of naivety, shortsightedness, worn-out prejudices and unrealistic political fantasies,” it said.<\/p>\n

“Should he act on them in the real world, it would be disastrous.<\/p>\n

“As many have observed, it would set a course for devastating confrontation between China and the US. After all, how can the US deny China access to its own territories without inviting the latter’s legitimate, defensive responses?”<\/p>\n

The Global Times, a nationalist daily, suggested that Mr Tillerson’s “astonishing” comments came because “he merely wanted to curry favour from senators and increase his chances of being confirmed by intentionally showing a tough stance toward China”.<\/p>\n

China would ensure his “rabble rousing” would not succeed, it went on.<\/p>\n

“Unless Washington plans to wage a large-scale war in the South China Sea, any other approaches to prevent Chinese access to the islands will be foolish.”<\/p>\n

The Obama administration has spoken out strongly against the island-building, pledged to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and sending navy ships to sail in contested areas.<\/p>\n

But it has not threatened to block access to the islands, a step likely to enrage Beijing.<\/p>\n

Mr Tillerson did not explain how the US might block access to the islands, and both Chinese papers suggested a wait-and-see policy.<\/p>\n

“It remains to be seen to what extent his views against China will translate into US foreign policies,” the China Daily said.<\/p>\n

\"China<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Blocking China from islands it has built in contested waters would lead to “devastating confrontation”, Chinese state media have warned.} The angry response came after secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson said the US should deny Beijing access to new islands in the South China Sea. Two state-run papers carry editorials strongly criticising his comments. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31784"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31784"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}