US accusations of China's militarization of South China Sea are blame-shifting: MFA
By Bao Han
People's Daily app
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(Photo: MFA)

The US tried to shift the blame to China by claiming that China militarizes the South China Sea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang said Tuesday at a regular press conference.

China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and its adjacent waters. China's peaceful construction activities in its own territory, including the deployment of necessary defense facilities, are the right of self-insurance and self-defense given to sovereign states under international law, and it has nothing to do with "militarization", Lu stressed.

Lu said there is no navigation problem and overflight freedom in the South China Sea. However, the US has frequently sent warships, reached the South China Sea reefs and illegally entered the territorial waters of China's Xisha Islands for the so-called FONOPs. It's the US that is creating tensions and attempting to "militarize" the region.

As to the so-called "reckless harassment" Chinese warships made toward US warships, Lu noted that the US confuses right and wrong. The US warship sailed such a long way to the Chinese territory, but to accuse the Chinese warship of "reckless harassment" is totally blame-shifting.

China urges the US to stop stirring up trouble and creating tensions, respect regional countries' efforts to resolve problems through negotiations and consultations, stop harming China's sovereignty and security interests, and become a contributor to peace and stability in the South China Sea, not a destroyer.