President Obama should not try and spark a fire in Asia says China. (File Photo)
BEIJING:
China warned President Obama on Tuesday not to spark a fire in Asia after he announced the lifting of a longstanding embargo on lethal arms sales to Vietnam.
Obama unveiled the historic step on Monday during his first visit to Vietnam, insisting the move was "not based on China" while simultaneously acknowledging that both nations share a common concern about China's actions in the South China Sea.
Beijing, not surprisingly, was unimpressed. It enjoys a complex relationship with its southern neighbor: the two governments are united in their communist ideology and distaste for Western democracy, but fought a bloody border war as recently as 1979. They now fiercely contest sovereignty over many small islands in the South China Sea.
The United States and Vietnam must not spark a "regional tinderbox," the Communist Party mouthpiece, China Daily, warned in an editorial Tuesday, noting concerns that Obama's move was meant to "curb the rise of China."
"This, if true, bodes ill for regional peace and stability," it argued.
The United States accuses China of militarizing the South China Sea by turning contested reefs and rocks into putative military bases.
Beijing says it is only asserting its "indisputable" sovereignty over the islands and blames the United States for interfering, by encouraging rival claimants to antagonize China.
The nationalist Global Times tabloid called Obama's claim that the Vietnam move was not aimed at China "a very poor lie," adding it would exacerbate the "strategic antagonism between Washington and Beijing."
While not an official mouthpiece, the Global Times nevertheless often represents a strain of nationalist thinking within the party.
It accused Washington of trying to knit three nets around China - in ideology, in security and in economy and trade - in an attempt to secure its dominance of the region.
While it was unlikely Vietnam, whose weapons systems are largely Russian-made, would import significant quantities of U.S. arms for the moment, the paper said, the move drew it into a "U.S.-dominated regional security system."
The paper also implied there was some hypocrisy in the move to cozy up to Communist Vietnam. "When the U.S. has an urgent need to contain China in the South China Sea, the standards of its so-called human rights can be relaxed," it wrote.
Experts in China said they expected that U.S. warships would sooner or later be granted access to Cam Ranh Bay, a deep water port that served as the key U.S. naval base during the Vietnam War.
Shi Yinhong, a professor in international relations at Renmin University of China, said Beijing would not respond in a tit-for-tat way but would continue to build its military power in the South China Sea, while exerting pressure on Hanoi not to draw too close to Washington.
"China will try to cozy up to Vietnam but at the same time put pressure on it," he said.
On social media, there were some angry reactions. "It looks like Vietnam is going to be America's new puppet," one user wrote. "Vietnam needs to give serious consideration to inviting the wolf into the house."
"The U.S. is walking an arms race path," wrote another, arguing this was good news as Beijing had deeper pockets. "China can wait until the enemy is exhausted."
© 2016 The Washington Post
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Obama unveiled the historic step on Monday during his first visit to Vietnam, insisting the move was "not based on China" while simultaneously acknowledging that both nations share a common concern about China's actions in the South China Sea.
Beijing, not surprisingly, was unimpressed. It enjoys a complex relationship with its southern neighbor: the two governments are united in their communist ideology and distaste for Western democracy, but fought a bloody border war as recently as 1979. They now fiercely contest sovereignty over many small islands in the South China Sea.
The United States and Vietnam must not spark a "regional tinderbox," the Communist Party mouthpiece, China Daily, warned in an editorial Tuesday, noting concerns that Obama's move was meant to "curb the rise of China."
"This, if true, bodes ill for regional peace and stability," it argued.
The United States accuses China of militarizing the South China Sea by turning contested reefs and rocks into putative military bases.
Beijing says it is only asserting its "indisputable" sovereignty over the islands and blames the United States for interfering, by encouraging rival claimants to antagonize China.
The nationalist Global Times tabloid called Obama's claim that the Vietnam move was not aimed at China "a very poor lie," adding it would exacerbate the "strategic antagonism between Washington and Beijing."
While not an official mouthpiece, the Global Times nevertheless often represents a strain of nationalist thinking within the party.
It accused Washington of trying to knit three nets around China - in ideology, in security and in economy and trade - in an attempt to secure its dominance of the region.
While it was unlikely Vietnam, whose weapons systems are largely Russian-made, would import significant quantities of U.S. arms for the moment, the paper said, the move drew it into a "U.S.-dominated regional security system."
The paper also implied there was some hypocrisy in the move to cozy up to Communist Vietnam. "When the U.S. has an urgent need to contain China in the South China Sea, the standards of its so-called human rights can be relaxed," it wrote.
Experts in China said they expected that U.S. warships would sooner or later be granted access to Cam Ranh Bay, a deep water port that served as the key U.S. naval base during the Vietnam War.
Shi Yinhong, a professor in international relations at Renmin University of China, said Beijing would not respond in a tit-for-tat way but would continue to build its military power in the South China Sea, while exerting pressure on Hanoi not to draw too close to Washington.
"China will try to cozy up to Vietnam but at the same time put pressure on it," he said.
On social media, there were some angry reactions. "It looks like Vietnam is going to be America's new puppet," one user wrote. "Vietnam needs to give serious consideration to inviting the wolf into the house."
"The U.S. is walking an arms race path," wrote another, arguing this was good news as Beijing had deeper pockets. "China can wait until the enemy is exhausted."
© 2016 The Washington Post
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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