Xi, in Singapore for a historic meeting with his counterpart across the Taiwan Strait, Ma Ying-jeou, delivered remarks at the National University of Singapore where he described China’s position that the “islands in the South China Sea have been China’s territory since ancient times.” Xi added that the “Chinese government must take responsibility to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and legitimate maritime interests.”
“Some people have been hyping China’s threat,” Xi continued. “This is either due to the ignorance of Chinese history, culture and current policy, or out of some misunderstanding and prejudice, and probably for some ulterior reasons.”
Though Xi’s language was in line with statements on the South China Sea by the Chinese foreign and defense ministers, the optics of the Chinese president himself making these declarations in Singapore, a hub for Southeast Asian commercial maritime activity, emphasized the extent to which China is interested in publicly clarifying its position on the South China Sea after the U.S. Navy has started undertaking freedom of navigation patrols.
Meanwhile, across the Pacific, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, the U.S. defense secretary spoke at length on the United States’ plans for the South China Sea. The Obama administration has been reluctant to speak publicly on the specifics of the mission carried out in the Spratly Islands by the USS Lassen, the guided-missile destroyer that transited within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef compliant with the international legal requirements for “innocent passage.”
While Carter did not offer new details on the operation itself, he emphasized that the United States would continue its freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea. “We’ve done them before, all over the world,” Carter said. “And we will do them again.” The defense secretary provided no specific timeline, but earlier reports have suggested that the United States is planning on carrying out two of these missions per quarter.
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