World should fear Beijing’s claims to South China Sea, says Philippine’s Aquino
China’s increasingly assertive actions raise the spectre of other nations having access cut to international shipping lanes and fishing grounds in the sea, Aquino says
China’s efforts to stake its claim to most of the South China Sea should spark fear around the world, with military conflict possible, Philippine President Benigno Aquino said.
In an interview with AFP, Aquino also warned that China’s increasingly assertive actions raised the spectre of other nations having access cut to international shipping lanes and fishing grounds in the sea.
”Does it engender fear? Yes, I think it should engender fear for the rest of the world,” Aquino said when asked to assess Chinese government moves in recent years to assert its sovereign claims in the sea.
The question of it escalating to something beyond everybody’s control should be at the top of the minds of all world leaders
Aquino said that, while he did not believe China intended to engage in a military conflict over the territorial disputes with the Philippines and other Asian nations, that was a possibility.
”The question of it escalating to something beyond everybody’s control should be at the top of the minds of all world leaders,” he said.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including areas just off the coasts of other Asian nations, using an assertive demarcation line that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims.
