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(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
BY JOHN O’CONNOR
ANCHOR LAUREN GORES
The Chinese media had harsh words for the U.S. over American statements about territorial
disputes in the South China Sea. Chicago’s WGN has more about the language used by Chinese
media.
“Chinese Communist newspapers told Washington to ‘shut up.’ They also said to stop meddling
in their business.”
The territorial disputes are over the oil-rich Paracel Islands. This is where six countries
in the southwest Pacific, including China but not the US, lay claim. According to a
US deputy spokesperson with the State department -- The US is concerned about a new city China
recently built and Chinese militarization of the island.
" … China's upgrading of the administrative level of Sansha City and establishment of
a new military garrison there covering disputed areas of the South China Sea run counter to
collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions
in the region … "
But China says the U.S. is playing the role of the instigator. The BBC translates a statement
from China’s People's Daily.
"The statement by the US side confuses right and wrong, strongly misleads public opinion,
sends the wrong signal and should be sternly refuted … We can completely shout to the
US: Shut up."
The U.S. has reaffirmed its interest in the dispute is completely neutral, but The Economist
reports it might be difficult to see that from the Chinese perspective.
“[They have] a point when [they] say the American statement was one-sided. And it must
be suspicious that, despite its denials, America is backing its rivals’ claims. Mrs Clinton,
for example, has taken to using the term ‘the West Philippine Sea’.”
According to Reuters, China repeated on Monday it has every right to set up a city in the
region. The U.S. State Department has yet to respond to these claims.