PRESS RELEASE
People’s Daily: ‘China Will Never Allow the U.S. To Run Amok in the South China Sea’
Oct. 23, 2016 (EIRNS)—People’s Daily, the official paper of the Chinese Communist Party issued an editorial today with the above conclusion, in response to the deliberate provocation on Oct. 21 by the Obama Administration in sailing the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer the U.S.S. Decatur through China’s Xisha (Paracel) Island waters. The editorial strongly protested the provocation and said that China “will take a series of effective counter-measures.”
They note that the mantra that such provocation are testing “freedom-of-navigation” is a fraud, since there is no restraint on freedom of navigation, other than Chinese and international law requiring that foreign warships need approval from the Chinese government before entering Chinese waters.
“The illegal entry of U.S. warships into Chinese waters without permission seriously violates China’s sovereignty and security interests, breaches both Chinese and international laws as well, and poses threats to peace, security as well as order in the relevant waters,”
the statement says.
But the editorial goes further to identify the danger that Obama, having lost his “pivot to Asia” gambit to militarily encircle China as a result of the Philippines rejection of Obama’s war plan, is frantically acting alone, and could go out of control:
“By launching the so-called patrols, the superpower is telling the world that it can tolerate neither a tranquil South China Sea, nor a peaceful and stable Asia-Pacific. Since it cannot find a puppet troublemaker any longer, the exasperated Washington has to create a disturbance by itself.”
They continue:
“Washington has to realize that it is rightly this hegemonic mentality that has resulted in its declining global influence and inability to provide public goods with positive energy. It also has to admit that the era when one country can dominate an alliance network by creating tensions with lies will never come back. No one wants to weaken the U.S.’ influence in the Asia-Pacific region, but such influence must be based on a positive dedication to common development of the whole region. Its outdated hegemonic mentality is by no means accepted by regional countries who aspire for peace, cooperation and shared progress.”