Southeast Asian leaders and US President Barack Obama formally demanded freedom of navigation in the South China Sea - which China claims as its territory - but did not issue a planned statement expressing direct opposition to the use of force in the disputed waters.
Beijing's expressions of anger at US interference may have forced Obama and Asean to tone down the formal communique issued after the leaders' summit, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday. It was the first Asean-US summit held in America and only the second of its kind.
In the joint communique, the leaders stated the 'importance of regional peace and stability, maritime security, unimpeded commerce, and freedom of navigation ... and the peaceful settlement of disputes'. This was a reference to the South China Sea, according to US and Philippine accounts of the summit.
The language was more moderate than that of an earlier draft of the joint statement which opposed the 'use or threat of force by any claimant attempting to enforce disputed claims in the South China Sea'. Hours after the meeting, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing: 'China has and always will work for the peaceful resolution of South China Sea disputes.'
She said China hoped the states concerned would deal with the disputes in the same spirit as China and promoted good-neighbourly relations and mutual trust in the region to ensure its peace and stability.
Chinese envoys had lobbied Asean members ahead of the summit, several diplomats said. Asean operates on consensus decision-making - meaning smaller, less powerful members are often considered vulnerable to outside pressure to change an outcome.
China has been increasingly strident about its claims to sovereignty over two island chains, the Spratlys and Paracels. Asean member Vietnam claims sovereignty over all the islands, and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim of them. Beijing this year designated the South China Sea a 'core interest' of China, putting it on a par with Tibet and Taiwan.
