Chinese officials and the State media have taken exception to S.M. Krishna's comments last week that the disputed South China Sea was “the property of the world,” describing the External Affairs Minister's remarks as “a mistake.”
“Other countries can't denote one country's territory as global property,” said a commentary published by the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper. “Describing the South China Sea as global property is a mistake.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday also issued a response to Mr. Krishna, who had also stressed that the sea's “trade-ways must be free from any national interference.”
Spokesperson Liu Weimin said “anyone who is objective and fair is well aware” that the freedom of navigation on the South China Sea, whose islands are disputed by China and 10 other countries, had been “fully guaranteed according to international law.”
“The robust economic development of East Asia and Southeast Asia over the years,” he added, “has also demonstrated that the freedom of navigation on the South China Sea has not been affected by the dispute over the Nansha [Spratly] Islands at all.”
China, he said, had “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly Islands, which are also contested by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines and other countries. China's position was that the dispute “should be resolved through negotiation between sovereign states that are directly concerned.”
The Global Times had a sharper response to Mr. Krishna, saying India was “playing a long game” by involving itself in the dispute by cooperating with Vietnam in exploration projects.
“India sees China's strategic relationship with Pakistan and Myanmar as geographical containment on India. Therefore, taking a stronger role in South China Sea disputes and taking advantage of China's territorial conflicts with its neighbouring countries are India's strategic means to counter China,” said the commentary, authored by Ju Hailong, a scholar at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at Jinan University.
“Intervening in the South China Sea disputes also contributes to expanding India's “Look East Policy” and enhancing policy coordination” with the U.S., the article said. “India's intervention in the South China Sea has not been done on a whim. For India, the strategic benefits brought by it are much greater than the realistic interests gained from the joint oil exploration with Vietnam.”
"Your girlish stance will only make India the hostage"
@ Aritra Gupta - Why do have to highlight your sexist attitude here totally out of context?
JK Dutt- There exists no relationship where there exists no equality.
What are we, China's vassal that whatever it says is the ultimate
truth/has to be taken at face value? Wherever we have a claim we think
fair and legitimate we should fight to our last breath. Your girlish
stance will only make India the hostage and satellite, albeit an
important of China.
China get out of POK period.
That land belongs to India who have full sovereign rights over it. Since you are building in PoK, we WILL explore OIL in Vietnam's territory.
We know what strategic advantage you China gain out of getting into PoK, it has nothing to do with Pakistan. You just want to attack India at its weakest point in the border ie PoK and also have roads and railways to Pakistani ports.
I don't see any wrong in Mr Krishna's statement. He has rightly stated the matter. India need to be more active in the foreign policy and first time India has taken a big step in moving into the S China sea area.
India's oil exploration in South China Sea a befitting reply to chinese
intervention in PoK.
If China wants they can claim the whole Asia, its not the fact but
5000 yrs old maps and anything which Mao army wants they will want to
claim it - just by using threat than by international norms.
How can anyone trust a country who puts missiles at Taiwan and says
they dont care Olympics and they are ready to bombard the whole Island
which is free since last 53 yrs?
Also, 14 yrs of invasion on Tibet has not gone down well with the
world. Chinese can say and twist turn and cheat local innocent chinese
people but i think World is aware of the facts.
I do not agree with the above comment,even if India is following the American diktat it does not matter, we should have a stong response to the Chinese policy of strategic containement of India with their String of Pearls strategy,even PoK is a disputed territory through which China is flauntingly building its Karakoram highway even after all objection's of India.South China Sea is where it hurts for China,and rather than stepping back we should exploit this scenario,their's no point in pondering about the relation's when China is softly punching on India's face.
When will we realise that passing unwanted comments like what our Foreign Minister did about South China Sea only harm India's relations with China. As it is, we have got involved with oil exploration in this sensitive waterway at USA's behest and we insist on further complicating matters with meaningless comments. Ever since the UPA outfit took office, it has been faithfully carrying out USA's diktat, resulting in our foreign policy getting messed up thoroughly. USA has been dangling a UN high table seat as a bait and we have fallen for it. Don't we know that China will simply veto our aspirations?
One of the best ways to highlight the navigation problems in the south China sea is to rename it to " Indo_Pacific sea. Then the dispute between china's land and sea grabbing policy can be contested in the World court by all the countries involved.
This would be a peaceful way of solving the China's property grab policy by a nano inches every year.
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