U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
will leave China "in absolutely no doubt" about Washington's commitment
to freedom of navigation and flight in the South China Sea when he
visits Beijing this weekend, a senior State Department official said on
Wednesday.
An aerial photo taken though a glass window of a Philippine military plane shows the alleged on-going land reclamation by China on mischief reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, Philippines, May 11, 2015. Photo: Reuters/ Rit
Kerry will also tell Chinese leaders
that China's large scale land-reclamation work in pursuit of territorial
claims in the South China Sea could have negative consequences for
regional stability and relations with the United States, the official
told reporters.
The official spoke a day after a U.S.
official said the Pentagon was considering sending U.S. military
aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around rapidly
growing Chinese-made artificial islands in disputed South China Sea.
China's Foreign Ministry said on
Wednesday that Beijing was "extremely concerned" and demanded that the
U.S. issued a clarification of the remarks.
The senior U.S. official said "the
question about what the U.S Navy does or doesn't do is one that the
Chinese are free to pose" to Kerry in Beijing, where he is due on
Saturday and Sunday for meetings with civilian and military leaders,
including President Xi Jinping.
"He will leave his Chinese interlocutors
in absolutely no doubt that the United States remains committed to
maintaining freedom of navigation and to exercise our legitimate rights
as pertaining to over flight and movement on the high seas," the
official said.
"That won't change, and not only for us,
and not only in the South China Sea, but internationally and as a
global matter, that's a principle we are determined to uphold."
Kerry would "reinforce to them the very
negative consequences to China's image and China's relationship with its
neighbors on regional stability and potentially on the U.S.- China
relationship from their large-scale reclamation efforts and the behavior
generally in the South China Sea," the official said.
The U.S. official who spoke on Tuesday
said U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter had requested options that
include sending aircraft and ships within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of
reefs that China has been building up in the Spratly island chain.
Such a move would directly challenge Chinese efforts to expand its influence in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
Source: Reuters
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