China takes dual-track sea policy: Power and peace

From the Manila Standard Today (Jun 20): China takes dual-track sea policy: Power and peace

China “naturally loves peace” but will take “resolute measures” to protect regional stability, Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday, affirming a dual-track foreign policy of power and peace despite tensions with nations including Japan and Vietnam.

Li insisted that an urge for expansion was “not in the Chinese DNA” and that a “stable neighboring environment” was necessary for China’s continued economic development.

He was speaking London’s financial district on a three-day trip which aims to build trade ties and repair relations strained when British Prime Minister David Cameron met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in 2012.

China is currently facing territorial disputes with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines amid a hardline approach pursued by Li’s administration.

“We want to have a stable external environment. The Chinese naturally love peace. Confucius taught us that we should not do to others what we don’t want done to us... this has been imprinted on to the DNA of the nation,” Li said.

“Expansion is not in the Chinese DNA nor can we accept the logic that a strong country is bound to be hegemonic.”

But he added that China would take action “to protect the stability of the region” where necessary.

“For those acts of provoking incidents and undermining peace, China will have to take resolute measures to stop them, to prevent the situation from getting out of control,” he said.

“This is to protect the stability of the region.”

Meanwhile, 12 Vietnamese were sentenced to six months in jail and fined $100,000 for illegal fishing in Philippine waters, the prosecutor in the case said.

The fishermen, who were arrested on March 21 with a boatload of sharks just off the western island of Palawan, pleaded guilty last week, prosecutor Alen Rodriguez said.

If the 12 cannot pay the fine, the equivalent of more than $8,000 each and a huge sum for such fishermen, the judge could add more time to their sentence, said Rodriguez.

But in similar cases in the past, foreign fishermen caught in Philippine waters were allowed to go free after serving their sentences without paying the fine, he said.

The Vietnamese embassy in Manila could not be contacted for comment.

Vietnamese fishermen have been caught repeatedly fishing in Philippine waters in recent years, mostly near Palawan, which is the closest major Filipino island to Vietnam.

The 1,250-mile coast of Palawan is home to some of the region’s richest fishing grounds.

The Philippines has few maritime resources to police the area, so fishermen from neighboring countries regularly sail in.

In 2011, 122 Vietnamese were arrested near Palawan in the biggest illegal fishing bust in recent memory. They served jail terms of about six months, then were sent home.

The arrests of the Vietnamese fishermen have generally occurred in waters very close to Palawan, and not in areas of the adjoining South China Sea that are subject to competing territorial claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, China and other neighboring countries.

In Manila, lawmakers aired mix reactions to the plan of the Philippine Navy to build a runway at the Pagasa Island located within the Kalayaan Island Group, a move seen as the government’s way to strengthen its claim on the territory, but has drawn strong protest from China.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/06/20/china-takes-dual-track-sea-policy-power-and-peace/