Beijing will be barred from its South China Sea fortresses, says incoming US Secretary of state Rex Tillerson

USA: Tillerson slams China during Senate confirmation hearing

China will likely be alarmed by former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s Senate confirmation hearing remarks late yesterday.

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

While his address focused largely on Russia, reflecting Tillerson’s past relationship with its President Vladimir Putin and allegations of Russian hacking into the US election, his testimony on China presented a sharp change in tone from the Obama administration’s focus on co-operation.

Beijing has reclaimed more than 1200 hectares of land and constructed military-grade infrastructure, and reportedly installed weaponry, on reefs and islets mostly in the Spratly Island chain, where five other governments have territorial claims.

Armed and dangerous: Images of anti-aircraft and anti- missile systems on the almost completed artificial islands built by China in the South China Sea. Picture: Centre for Strategic and International Studies.Source:Supplied

UPPING THE ANTE

Accusing Beijing of “declaring control of territories that are not rightfully China’s,” Tillerson compared its island-building efforts and deployment of military assets on the islands to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea — an action that ended up prompting tough US and European sanctions.

He called China’s actions “extremely worrisome.”

Beijing, however, has responded by declaring it has been ‘acting within the limits of its sovereignty’.

“Like the US, China has the right within its own territory to carry out normal activities,” he said at a regular briefing in Beijing. When asked repeatedly about Tillerson’s comments on blocking access to islands, China’s foreign ministry spokesman said he couldn’t make any guesses as to what Tillerson was referring to and would not answer hypothetical questions,” foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kand said in Beijing overnight.

EXPLORE MORE: Satellites reveal Beijing has armed its artificial islands

That sovereignty, however, is at the core of the South China Sea dispute.

Many nations claim ownership over the diverse scattering of reefs and shoals between Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. China’s claim to historic ownership was rejected by an international court of arbitration last year.

The US failure to respond “has allowed them to keep pushing the envelope” in seas that carry $5 trillion of trade annually, he said, suggesting Trump would adopt a tougher approach.

“This is a threat to the entire global economy if China is allowed to somehow dictate the terms of passage through these waters,” Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Chinese J-15 fighter jets on the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills. China's aircraft carrier and a flotilla of other warships has just returned from exercises close to Taiwan. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

CHINA DEMANDS ‘MUTUAL RESPECT’

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said tensions in the strategically vital waterway had lessened and countries from outside the region should support efforts toward stability.

China-U.S. relations are based on “non-confrontation, non-conflict, mutual benefit and win-win co-operation,” Lu said at a daily briefing. “If you take a look at (Chinese) President Xi Jinping’s call with Donald Trump after he won the election, you can see that the two countries do respect each other, and we agree with him that we should develop our relations based on mutual respect,” he said.

In the South China Sea, which China claims virtually entirely, the “situation has cooled down, and we hope non-regional countries can respect this consensus that is in the fundamental interest of the whole world,” Lu added.

President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in one week from today. Picture: AP Photo/Evan VucciSource:AP

TOUGH TALK

Such rhetoric from Washington isn’t surprising. Past US administrations have entered office seeking to get tougher on China, and failed. Trump himself has threatened to impose punitive tariffs to address America’s trade imbalance with China and tested ties by questioning the longstanding US policy on the status of Taiwan.

A perennial challenge is to break China’s long-time partnership with North Korea’s hereditary dictatorship. Beijing is unwilling to exercise economic pressure that could destabilise its unpredictable ally, even as it shares US concerns about the isolated nation’s rapid development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them.

Earlier this week, outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry chided Beijing over its efforts to pressure North Korea, which relies on China for 90 per cent of its international trade. He said China needed to “increase its focus” and that the US may need “more forceful ways” of dealing with North Korea. Tillerson spoke in starker terms. He accused China of making “empty promises” on North Korea and supported US sanctions on Chinese companies found to be violating UN Security Council resolutions, recently beefed up to tighten restrictions on North Korean coal imports.

“If China is not going to comply with those UN sanctions then it’s appropriate for the United States to consider actions to compel them to comply,” Tillerson said.

Speaking generally, he described military force as the “least attractive option.” And he sought to play down Trump’s recent tweet on North Korea’s development of a missile that could strike America — “It won’t happen!” - saying it wasn’t a “red line.”