China defends its maritime role

An anti-China rally held in Vietnam yesterday. Photo: AFP

Chinese warships will continue to patrol waters where Beijing has territorial claims, a top general said yesterday, amid simmering rows with neighbouring countries over the South China Sea and islands controlled by Japan.
Lieutenant General Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, defended the patrols as legitimate and said his country's sovereignty over the areas could not be disputed.
"Why are Chinese warships patrolling in East China Sea and South China Sea? I think we are all clear about this," Qi told the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore.
"Our attitude on East China Sea and South China Sea is that they are in our Chinese sovereignty. We are very clear about that," he said through an interpreter.
"So the Chinese warships and the patrolling activities are totally legitimate and uncontroversial."
Qi was responding to a question from a delegate after giving a speech in which he sought to assure neighbouring countries that China has no hegemonic ambitions.
"China has never taken foreign expansion and military conquering as a state policy," he said.
China is locked in a territorial dispute with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea.
The four states have partial claims to islands but China says it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the sea, including areas much closer to other countries and thousands of kilometres from the Chinese coast.
China also has a dispute with Japan over the Senkaku islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus, in the East China Sea.