REUTERS-U.S. President-elect
Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state set a course for a potentially
serious confrontation with Beijing on Wednesday, saying China
should be denied
access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea.
In comments expected
to enrage Beijing, Rex Tillerson told his confirmation hearing before the U.S.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China's building of islands and putting
military assets on those islands was "akin to Russia’s taking Crimea” from
Ukraine.
Asked whether he
supported a more aggressive posture toward China, he said: "We’re going to
have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and,
second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”
The former Exxon
Mobil Corp (XOM.N)
chairman and chief executive did not elaborate on what might be done to deny
China access to the islands it has built up from South China Sea reefs,
equipped with military-length airstrips and fortified with weapons.
Trump's transition
team did not immediately respond to a request for specifics on how China might
be blocked from the artificial islands.
China claims most of
the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade
passes every year. Neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and
Vietnam also have claims.
Tillerson also said
Washington needed to reaffirm its commitment to Taiwan, which Beijing regards
as a renegade province, but stopped short of Trump's questioning of Washington's
long-standing policy on the issue.
The United States
switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging
that China takes the position that there is "one China" and Taiwan is
part of it. But the United States is also Taiwan's biggest ally and arms
supplier.
"I don’t know
of any plans to alter the 'one China' position," Tillerson said.
Tillerson said he
considered China’s South China Sea activity "extremely worrisome" and
that it would be a threat to the "entire global economy" if Beijing
were able to dictate access to the waterway.
He blamed the
current situation on what he termed an inadequate U.S. response. "The
failure of a response has allowed them just to keep pushing the envelope on
this," Tillerson said.
"The way we’ve
got to deal with this is we’ve got to show back up in the region with our
traditional allies in Southeast Asia," he said.
Democratic President
Barack Obama’s administration conducted periodic air and naval patrols to
assert the right of free navigation in the South China Sea. These have angered
Beijing, but seeking to blockade China's man-made islands would be a major step
further and a step that Washington has never raised as an option.
Under his strategic
"pivot" to Asia, Obama has increased the U.S. military presence in
the region, and Trump has vowed a major naval buildup.
Tillerson's words
also went beyond Trump's own tough rhetoric on China.
RELUCTANT TO
CHALLENGE
Obama has sought to
forge a united front in Southeast Asia against China’s pursuit of its territorial
claims, but some allies and partners who are rival claimants have been
reluctant to challenge Beijing.
Tillerson called
China's South China Sea island-building and declaration of an air defense zone
in the East China Sea it contests with Japan "illegal actions."
"They’re taking
territory or control, or declaring control of territories that are not
rightfully China’s," he said.
The response was
muted from the Philippines, a traditional U.S. ally that last year won an
international arbitration case that included a challenge to China's
island-building within its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
"These are not
policies yet and let us wait if they will implement what was said in the
hearing," Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters on Thursday.
"Let's wait
until Trump is in office."
His comments reflect
the sharp change in Manila's approach to China under new President Rodrigo
Duterte, who wants good diplomatic and business ties with Beijing and says
challenging it is provocative and pointless. He makes no secret of his lack of
trust in the Obama administration and has chided it for what he considers
inaction in the South China Sea.
Tillerson also said
the United States could not continue to accept "empty promises" China
had made about putting pressure on North Korea over that country's nuclear and
missile programs.
He said his approach
to dealing with North Korea - which recently declared it is close to carrying
out its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile - would be "a
long-term plan" based on sanctions and their proper implementation.
Asked if Washington
should consider imposing "secondary sanctions" on Chinese entities
found to be violating existing sanctions on North Korea, Tillerson said:
"If China is not going to comply with those U.N. sanctions, then it's
appropriate ... for the United States to consider actions to compel them to
comply."
He accused China of
failing to live up to global agreements on trade and intellectual property,
echoing past remarks by Trump, who has threatened to impose high, retaliatory
tariffs on China. But Tillerson also stressed the "deeply
intertwined" nature of the world's two biggest economies.
"We should not
let disagreements over other issues exclude areas for productive
partnership," he said.
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