THE COMMANDER of US forces in the Pacific has warned that China’s military is asserting the country’s territorial claims in regional waters more aggressively.
“There has been an assertiveness that has been growing over time, particularly in the South China Sea and in the East China Sea,” said Adm Robert Willard.
He said China’s extensive claims to islands and waters in the region were “generating increasing concern broadly across the region and require address”.
The admiral’s remarks come on the heels of complaints by Japan’s government in recent weeks over aggressive behaviour from a Chinese coastguard vessel in contested waters and a Chinese military helicopter in international waters.
Some of China’s neighbours have been watching the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) modernisation and efforts at expanding its navy’s reach with unease, and defence experts see this expansion as one factor behind a developing arms race in southeast Asia.
Adm Willard said the US viewed China’s growing influence in Asia as positive. But Beijing needed to be more transparent, not only with the US but also with its neighbours, about the part of the PLA’s capabilities that could be viewed as aggressive.
Adm Willard was speaking ahead of talks with Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the PLA, which will be the first meeting between senior US and Chinese military officers since Beijing suspended bilateral military-to-military dialogue in January over US arms sales to Taiwan. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010)