Human rights, cybersecurity on table as US, China gird for prickly talks

WASHINGTON — The United States said it would not “paper over” differences with China when top officials of the world’s two largest economies meet to discuss financial and political strategy in Washington next week.

Mr Daniel Russel, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, set the scene for contentious exchanges at the annual US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) by stressing that differences over the South China Sea, cybersecurity and human rights would be high on America’s agenda.

Speaking after revelations of massive cyber attacks on US government computers in the past two weeks, which US officials have blamed on Chinese hackers, Mr Russel said cybersecurity issues would be raised throughout the talks from Monday to Wednesday in Washington.

The US would also stress human rights, including the issue of democracy in Hong Kong, China’s “very problematic” law on non-government organisations, and its restrictions on media and civil society, he told a media briefing. China has indicated a desire to avoid acrimony at the talks, looking to set the scene for a successful visit to Washington by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang told a forum in Beijing yesterday that China would seek to “constructively handle and control” differences with the US on maritime disputes, cybersecurity, and human rights. “On these issues our attitude is to not evade and to resolutely defend China’s interests,” Mr Zheng said.

China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, through which US$5 trillion (S$6.7 trillion) in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims. China stepped up its creation of artificial islands last year, and there have been recent tensions between the Chinese navy and the US military around the Spratlys.

Mr Russel said maritime disputes in the South China Sea were “not fundamentally” between the US and China, and the US had “an unwavering determination ... to avoid military confrontation, including with China.”

However, he said the principles of freedom of navigation and overflight were at stake and maritime claims had to be consistent with international law. “It’s an issue of China’s future and of China’s choices,” Mr Russel said.

He called this week’s announcement by China that it planned to continue and expand the construction of facilities on reclaimed outposts in disputed waters troubling.

“Neither that statement, nor that behaviour, contributes to reducing tensions ... The prospect of militarising those outposts runs counter to the goal of reducing tensions,” Mr Russel said.

“That’s why we consistently urge China to cease reclamation, to not construct further facilities, and certainly not to further militarise outposts in the South China Sea.”

This year’s meeting comes amid heightened tensions, not just over Beijing’s increased territorial assertiveness and the allegations of cyberspying, but China’s expanding economic influence across the Pacific Rim at a time of growing doubts over US leadership after last week’s congressional rebuff of President Barack Obama’s landmark Asia-Pacific trade pact.

US officials will also press China on currency policy, said a senior US Treasury official, who said China’s yuan still appeared undervalued despite a recent assessment by the International Monetary Fund that this was no longer the case.

The US-China dialogue was established in 2009 as a way to maintain practical bilateral cooperation in spite of differences. It will be chaired on the US side by Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, while China’s delegation will be led by State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Vice-Premier Wang Yang.

Meanwhile, China’s maritime regulator said its construction on disputed reefs in the South China Sea will not destroy ocean ecology, in the face of complaints from the Philippines that the work is damaging coral in the area. Manila in April said China’s construction had destroyed about 1.2 sq km of coral reef and caused estimated annual losses of US$100 million to coastal nations.

“The Nansha expansion project highly emphasises environmental protection,” China’s State Oceanic Administration said in a statement on its website late on Thursday, which was covered widely in Chinese media yesterday. China refers to the Spratlys as the Nansha Islands. Numerous protection measures, including the use of a “new type” of dredging technique, had been implemented during planning and construction, and had achieved good results, the administration said. “Impact on coral reef ecology is localised, temporary, controllable and restorable,” it said. AGENCIES