U. S. President-elect Donald Trump ‘s nominee for secretary of state set a course for a potentially serious confrontation with Beijing on Wednesday, saying China should be denied access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea.
In comments expected to enrage Beijing, Rex Tillerson told his confirmation hearing before the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China’s building of islands and putting military assets on those islands was \u00ab\u00a0akin to Russia’s taking Crimea\u00a0\u00bb from Ukraine.
Asked whether he supported a more aggressive posture toward China, he said: \u00ab\u00a0We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed. \u00a0\u00bb
The former Exxon Mobil chairman and chief executive did not elaborate on what might be done to deny China access to the islands it has built up from South China Sea reefs, equipped with military-length airstrips and fortified with weapons.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for specifics on how China might be blocked from the artificial islands.
Tillerson also said Washington needed to reaffirm its commitment to Taiwan , which Beijing regards as a renegade province, but stopped short of Trump’s questioning of Washington’s long-standing policy on the issue.
\u00ab\u00a0I don’t know of any plans to alter the ‘one China’ position,\u00a0\u00bb he said.
Tillerson said he considered China’s South China Sea activity \u00ab\u00a0extremely worrisome\u00a0\u00bb and that it would be a threat to the \u00ab\u00a0entire global economy\u00a0\u00bb if Beijing were able to dictate access to the waterway, which is of strategic military importance and a major trade route.
He blamed the current situation on what he termed an inadequate U. S. response. \u00ab\u00a0The failure of a response has allowed them just to keep pushing the envelop on this,\u00a0\u00bb Tillerson said.
\u00ab\u00a0The way we’ve got to deal with this is we’ve got to show back up in the region with our traditional allies in Southeast Asia,\u00a0\u00bb he said.
Democratic President Barack Obama ‘s administration conducted periodic air and naval patrols to assert the right of free navigation in the South China Sea. These have angered Beijing, but seeking to blockade China’s man-made islands would be a major step further and a step that Washington has never raised as an option.
Under his strategic \u00ab\u00a0pivot\u00a0\u00bb to Asia, Obama has increased the U. S. military presence in the region, and Trump has vowed a major naval buildup.
Tillerson’s words also went beyond Trump’s own tough rhetoric on China.
Obama has sought to forge a united front in Southeast Asia against China’s pursuit of its territorial claims, but some allies and partners who are rival claimants have been reluctant to challenge Beijing.
Tillerson called China’s South China Sea island-building and declaration of an air defense zone in waters of the East China Sea it contests with Japan \u00ab\u00a0illegal actions. \u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0They’re taking territory or control, or declaring control of territories that are not rightfully China’s,\u00a0\u00bb he said.
Tillerson also said the United States could not continue to accept \u00ab\u00a0empty promises\u00a0\u00bb China had made about putting pressure on North Korea over that country’s nuclear and missile programs.
He said his approach to dealing with North Korea – which recently declared it is close to carrying out its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile – would be \u00ab\u00a0a long-term plan\u00a0\u00bb based on sanctions and their proper implementation.
Asked if Washington should consider imposing \u00ab\u00a0secondary sanctions\u00a0\u00bb on Chinese entities found to be violating existing sanctions on North Korea, Tillerson said: \u00ab\u00a0If China is not going to comply with those U. N. sanctions, then it’s appropriate … for the United States to consider actions to compel them to comply. \u00a0\u00bb
He accused China of failing to live up to global agreements on trade and intellectual property, echoing past remarks by Trump, who has threatened to impose high, retaliatory tariffs on China. But Tillerson also stressed the \u00ab\u00a0deeply intertwined\u00a0\u00bb nature of the world’s two biggest economies.
\u00ab\u00a0We should not let disagreements over other issues exclude areas for productive partnership,\u00a0\u00bb he said.
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