Beijing faces consequences over South China Sea moves: Mattis

Bloomberg

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said the world have to deal with China’s militarisation of the South China Sea for now, but that Beijing would face “larger consequences” in the long term that could persuade it to change track.
Beijing’s deployments of missile batteries and bombers to outposts in disputed areas appear aimed at intimidating neighbours, Mattis told delegates at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
The defense secretary said such moves had caused the US to reconsider its “cooperative stance” and disinvite China from the world’s largest annual naval exercise later this month.
Mattis acknowledged that was a relatively small penalty for China to pay, and that the region would be “dealing with the reality” of its territorial claims over a vital global shipping route.
“I believe there are much larger consequences in the future, when nations lose the rapport of their neighbours,” Mattis said after his speech in response to a question from Bloomberg News.
He also attacked what he said were excessive loans made under China’s Belt and Road Initiative that were binding smaller nations in debt.
“Eventually these things do not pay off, even if on the financial ledger sheet, or the power ledger sheet they appear to,” he said. “It’s a very shaky foundation when we believe that militarising features are somehow going to endorse their standing in the world.”
Long-running disputes between the world’s two largest economic powers have flared amid the Trump administration’s efforts to counter Chinese influence.
Mattis’s comments appeared to be an attempt to reaffirm the US commitment to Asia’s security, even as President Donald Trump’s decisions to levy tariffs on allies and withdraw from international agreements raise questions about America’s postwar alliances.
Challenged from the floor of the conference by several
delegates, Mattis gave a forceful defense of the US commitment to its allies in the region, stretching back to Thomas Jefferson, through to the 1945 defeat of fascism and Cold War encroachments by the former Soviet Union.
“We have seen those who wanted to dominate the region come and go, and we have been with you,” Mattis said.
“It’s not based on which party is in power.”
The US cancelled China’s participation in the multinational RIMPAC naval drills after China confirmed reports the People’s Liberation Army had installed missile systems in the disputed Spratly chain. China asserts ownership and control over more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, a $5 trillion-a-year shipping route where five others including the Philippines and Vietnam have disputed territorial claims.
The Philippines has already sought accommodation with China, rather than contest its claims. But Representative Mac Thornberry, chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee, told reporters he believed that attitudes to China in the region are hardening.
“It’s clear to me from the conversations I’ve had, not just the past week but beyond, that China’s actions are increasingly alienating many countries because they threaten the ability of countries to determine their own future, to provide for their people,” Thornberry said.