China should adhere to international law – US commander

MANILA, Philippines – Even as China’s ambition has grown along with its economy, Beijing cannot throw its weight around or do whatever it pleases in the disputed South China Sea, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet said at a recent forum in Canada.

The observation was made by Admiral Harry Harris in his introductory remarks during the panel discussion dubbed “Broken China: Handle With Care” at an international security forum last Nov. 21.

Harris stressed that while US-China relations are more constructive than destructive, the Asian giant should always adhere to international law in dealing with its neighbors.

The admiral cited the “extreme scope” of China’s building of artificial islands which he called “Sandcastles in the Sea” and the “Great Wall of Sand.”

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio was among the speakers at the forum, which Maclean’s magazine billed as a definitive event where “people who wield power on matters of war and international security” converge. 

Carpio led the Philippine delegation which included Consul General Eric Gerardo Tamayo, honorary consul general Sean Sears and honorary vice consul Elizabeth Eustaquio-Domondon.

Carpio was also in the panel discussion “Broken China: Handle With Care” moderated by BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet.

With Carpio were Masashi Nishihara, president of the Research Institute for Peace and Security; Admiral Michael Rogers, commander of US Cyber Command and National Security Agency chief; and Russell Trood, director of the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University.

The Defense News magazine cited the Philippines’ resorting to international arbitration to settle its territorial dispute with China.

“We cannot live with a dispute where China claims everything,” Carpio said.

“We still have that territorial dispute over the Spratlys. And the way we propose to solve that is through the proposal of marine biologists – to say that the Spratlys are the hatchery of the South China Sea – the fish that we catch in the South China Sea are spawned in the Spratlys,” he said.

Carpio expressed concern that China would resort to declaring an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea once it has completed its building spree in disputed waters.

Carpio said China’s late leader Deng Xiaoping told the United Nations in 1974 that “if one day China should change her color and turn into a superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialism, expose it, oppose it and work together with the Chinese people to overthrow it.”