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China fools nobody but itself at Shangri-La Dialogue

China fools nobody but itself at Shangri-La Dialogue

Sunday, June 05, 2016, 11:35 GMT+7

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.

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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.

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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.

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