MANILA,
Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday
he has asked the U.S. ambassador why America did not deploy an armada of
warships to pressure China to stop constructing man-made islands that
are now at the heart of regional concerns in the disputed South China
Sea.
Duterte
said in a speech that U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim was unable to reply to
the question when they met Monday in southern Davao city, where the
president had a separate meeting with the Chinese ambassador. While
criticizing the U.S., Duterte did not berate China's behavior in his
speech.
Duterte
said he told Kim that he was surprised by what he described as U.S.
inaction when newspapers were publishing pictures of China's
construction of runways and other structures on the newly built islands
in the disputed waters.
"Had
America really wanted to avoid trouble, early on ... why did you not
send the armada of the 7th Fleet which is stationed there in the
Pacific, you just make a U-turn and go there and tell them right on
their face, stop it?" Duterte said he asked Kim, referring to the U.S.
naval fleet based in Japan.
Kim,
who arrived in Manila last year as American ambassador, replied that he
was assigned elsewhere at the time and could not give an answer,
Duterte said.
Duterte
spoke in a visit to Oriental Mindoro province a day after concerns were
raised over a report by a U.S. think tank that China has nearly
completed construction work on three man-made islands that will allow it
to deploy combat aircraft and surface-to-air missiles.
The
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies
analyzed recent satellite photos and concluded that runways, aircraft
hangers, radar sites and hardened surface-to-air missile shelters have
either been finished or are nearing completion.
One
of the islands mentioned in the report, Philippine-claimed Mischief
Reef, was seized by China in 1995, drawing protests from Manila then.
Another island, Subi, is very close to a Philippine-occupied island in
the Spratly chain, which is claimed in whole or in part by China, the
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Duterte repeated that he would not go to war with militarily superior China over the territorial conflict.
"The
first thing that will be blasted away from this planet Earth will be
Palawan," Duterte said, referring to the western Philippine island
province facing the disputed waters. "All of the deposits of armaments
of the Americans, including ours, are there."
When
Duterte took office in June, he reached out to China to mend relations
strained under his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, over the territorial
dispute. While taking a friendly stance toward Beijing, he lashed out
at the United States for criticizing his brutal campaign against illegal
drugs.
Duterte
thanked President Xi Jinping over the renewed friendship and return of
normal trade relations, praising the Chinese leader as "very kind."
Duterte,
however, said he will invoke an international arbitration ruling that
declared China has no historic title to the disputed waters if Beijing
drills for oil or gas in a shoal contested by China and the Philippines.
Department
of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said in Manila that China and
the Philippines have agreed to hold a bilateral consultation on the
South China Sea disputes and Beijing has offered to host an initial
meeting in May.
"The
purpose of this bilateral consultation mechanism is to have a platform
where issues about the South China Sea can be discussed," Jose told
reporters.
Source: AP
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