7 United States supported “a collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants for 7
resolving the various territorial disputes without coercion.” This statement infuriated Beijing. The Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, was visibly taken aback and described Clinton’s remarks as orchestrated, “virtually an attack on China,” asserting that, “nobody believes there’s anything that’s threatening the region’s peace and stability.” Greg Torode reported that Yang was shocked and accused his US counterpart of unleashing an anti-China plot. “Yang left the closed-door meeting,” Torode wrote, “…and later gave a rambling speech in which he threatened economic punishment for Southeast Asian nations that sought to stand up to Beijing. John Pomfret collaborates [sic] this account: “Foreign Minister Yang reacted by leaving the meeting for an hour. When he returned, he gave a rambling 30-minute response in which he accused the U.S. of plotting against China on the issue.” . . . On 1 August Yang stated, “What will be the consequences if this issue is turned into an international or multilateral one? It will only make matters worse and the resolution more difficult. International practices show that the best way to resolve such disputes is for countries concerned to have direct bilateral negotiations.”
8
It would be wise for China not to underestimate the disquiet that its huge claims over the South China Sea have created. Using dotted lines on a map that was first published in the 1940s, China has claimed more than 80 percent of the South China Sea. That claim has been met with incredulity. Lee Kuan Yew, a former prime minister of Singapore, observed that it is “clear that territorial claims [are] more complex than producing a map with dotted lines and saying: ‘All this is mine.’ I mean who produces this map? What is the authenticity of this map? Who kept it? And even if you can prove its antiquity, what does it 9
show?” A commentary in the Asia Times on 5 October 2011, put that matter succinctly: “It would be rather absurd if England were to try to claim sovereignty over most of the English Channel, Iran the Persian Gulf, Thailand
7
“Clinton’s Comments on South China Sea Territorial Dispute Press China-U.S. Relations,” 2point6billion.com, July 27, 2010, http://www.2point6billion.com/news/2010/07/27/clinton percentE2 percent80 percent99s-comments-on-south-china-sea-territorial-dispute-press-china-us-relations-6528.html. 8
Carlyle A. Thayer, “Recent Developments in the South China Sea: Grounds for Cautious Optimism?,” December 14, 2010, http://www.rsis.edu.sg/publications/WorkingPapers/WP220.pdf.
9
Lee Kuan Yew quoted in Jeremy Au Yong, “The Way to Solve Border Disputes: MM,” Straits Times, September 29, 2010.
ASIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS VOL. 6. NO. 1