China fools nobody but itself at Shangri-La Dialogue
Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh (C),
Deputy Minister of National Defense, answers the press in a sideline meeting
at the 15th Asia Security Summit in Singapore, June 4, 2016.
Leaflets handed out by the
Chinese delegation on Friday afternoon at the 15th annual Asia Security Summit
in Singapore, making false claims to the East Vietnam Sea, prove if anything
that China is running out of arguments to defend its so-called sovereignty
over the waterways.
Defense
officials from Vietnam, China, and around 30 other nations are in Singapore
to attend the summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, which runs from
Friday to Monday.
The
Shangri-La Dialogue is an annual summit organized by the UK-based International
Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) that welcomes defense officials from
countries across the Asia-Pacific region and the world to discuss strategic
issues, resolve differences, and seek potential cooperation.
This year,
disputes in the East Vietnam Sea, including China’s intentions to build
artificial islands on a massive scale, are to be the center of discussion at
the summit, according to Tim Huxley, executive director of IISS-Asia.
Shortly
after a bilateral meeting with Vietnamese defense officials on Friday
afternoon, the Chinese delegation started handing out leaflets printed in
Mandarin and English to delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue, in which China
distorts the evident truth and makes false sovereignty claims to the entire
East Vietnam Sea.
A leaflet printed in Mandarin making false claims to the East Vietnam
Sea that was handed out by the Chinese delegation at the 15th Asia Security Summit in Singapore, June 3, 2016. Photo: Tuoi
Tre
Biting off more than they can chew
In their
leaflets, China falsely claims sovereignty over all islands and features in
the East Vietnam Sea, which they refer to by Chinese names as Dongsha
Islands, Xisha Islands (Vietnam’s Hoang Sa or Paracel Islands), Zhongsha
Islands (comprising the Macclesfield Bank and Scarborough Shoal), and Nansha
Islands (Vietnam’s Truong Sa or Spratly Islands).
The leaflets
also included wrong statements that disputes in the East Vietnam Sea were
ignited by many nations that had “invaded” Chinese islands, and that China
was the first to discover, name, and manage Truong Sa.
The Chinese
claimed that the best resolution for such disputes was through direct
dialogues between the parties involved, and that ASEAN was a regional
organization with no status to make judgments on the issue.
Senior
Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of National
Defense and head of the Vietnamese delegation to the Shangri-La Dialogue, had
a sideline meeting with the press on Saturday afternoon.
When asked
to comment on China’s leaflets, he said that he had not had time to look at
the materials and that he did not know the details.
“I don’t
know who handed out these materials,” Vinh said. “But if it were me, I
wouldn’t make that move because this is an open and transparent forum where
your voice is heard by all nations. If you would like to say something, then
say it onstage in front of others; don’t hand out leaflets like this.”
Speaking
with Tuoi Tre (Youth)
newspaper, Assistant Professor Ken Jimbo from Keio University, Tokyo, a
senior research fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies, agreed that
such sneaky propagandist moves should not be carried out at an open dialogue
forum like Shangri-La.
“Judging
from what I’ve heard, China will continue to play stubborn in declaring their
sovereignty claims, and is very unlikely to concede in maritime disputes,”
the professor said.
Meanwhile,
Jonathan D. Pollack, a senior fellow at the Center for East Asia Policy
Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., said the Chinese
claims were not new to other nations, stressing that it was more important to
prevent the disputes from developing into armed conflicts.
A leaflet printed in Mandarin making false claims to the East Vietnam
Sea that was handed out by the Chinese delegation at the 15th Asia Security Summit in Singapore, June 3, 2016. Photo: Tuoi
Tre
A common voice for Shangri-La
In the press
meeting on Saturday afternoon, Deputy Defense Minister Vinh asserted that the
situation in the East Vietnam Sea this year was not so different from
previous years, except that it has drawn more international attention and
that there has been increasing militarization on disputed islands.
The senior
lieutenant general welcomed international attention as a means to peacefully
resolve conflicts in line with international law, while voicing concerns that
unrestrained militarization could lead to conflicts and irregular
circumstances that might get out of hand.
“On the
occasion of the Shangri-La Dialogue, we would like to discuss measures to
enhance bilateral defense cooperation among nations, as well as other issues
of mutual interest. There’s one thing that all delegations to the summit hope
to achieve, and that is a common voice for Shangri-La to eliminate regional
challenges and maintain peace and order for all nations,” Vinh said.
TUOI TRE NEWS
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Chủ Nhật, 5 tháng 6, 2016
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