Kerry Urges China to Reduce Tensions in Nearby Seas

Kerry Urges China to Reduce Tensions in Nearby Seas

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Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Yang Jiechi, a state councilor who deals with foreign policy, on Wednesday in Beijing. Credit Pool photo by Jim Bourg

BEIJING — In a closed-door session at a high-level gathering of Chinese and American officials here on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to follow maritime law in nearby seas to reduce regional tensions, a senior American official said.

Mr. Kerry called on China to support the creation of a legally binding code of conduct that other Asian nations are considering to enforce rules of navigation and inhibit unilateral actions in the South China and East China Seas, said the official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under standard protocol.

The secretary met with Yang Jiechi, a state councilor who deals with foreign policy, on the first day of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, an annual gathering of senior officials from both countries where differences on issues including national security, the economy, climate change and human rights are aired.

“The secretary emphasized this is not a situation in which countries should or can be permitted simply to act unilaterally to advance their territorial claims or interests,” said the official, alluding to China’s dispatch of a huge oil rig to disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam in May and the virtual takeover in 2012 of a reef, the Scarborough Shoal, that is claimed by the Philippines.

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Territorial Disputes in the Waters Near China

Maneuvers by China to assert claims over islands and waters in the South China Sea, and to slow the efforts of a regional group, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to complete a code of conduct that would govern maritime rules have become a major point of friction between Washington and Beijing. The South China Sea is one of the world’s busiest trading routes.

President Xi Jinping opened the two-day event, saying that a solid relationship between China and the United States was vital for everyone. “Cooperation between China and the U.S. will benefit the world, while the opposite will bring disaster,” Mr. Xi said.

He also stressed China’s economic and military strength. “The vast Pacific Ocean has ample space to accommodate two great nations,” he said, a comment suggesting that America’s domination of the Asia-Pacific region over the last 60 years will not last.

At his meeting with Mr. Yang, a diplomat known for his frank demeanor, Mr. Kerry set out Washington’s objections to China’s policies on several fronts and defended America’s alliances in Asia, arrangements that have come under stiff criticism from Beijing, the official said.

The secretary discussed China’s deteriorating human rights record, citing specific cases of people imprisoned for many years, as well as those jailed in the last few months during a crackdown on lawyers and journalists, the official said. “In particular, he described our perception of the trend of an increase in arrests and harassment of individuals expressing political views,” the official said.

China declined to hold a human rights dialogue with the United States this year, apparently in retribution for President Obama’s meeting in February with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who promotes autonomy from China.

The suspension of the human rights discussion came despite meetings in recent years between Chinese and American officials to discuss human rights and religious persecution in China.

Mr. Kerry called for the human rights talks to resume, the official said. Similarly, he asked that China agree to continue formal talks on cybersecurity that China suspended in May after the indictment of five members of the People’s Liberation Army by a United States grand jury on charges of cyberespionage.

The American special envoy on climate change, Todd Stern, met with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission and a powerful figure in the Chinese bureaucracy. “We are making a great effort on our internal reasoning so we can make due contributions to climate change,” Mr. Xie said.

While there was no breakthrough agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, American officials said they detected more determination by the Chinese to curb pollution, which has become so bad that some Chinese leaders see it as a possible cause of political instability.

One of the Chinese participants in the climate change session said that the Chinese needed a war on pollution like the American war on poverty, another American official said.

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Shadow of Brutal ’79 War Darkens Vietnam’s View of China Relations

Ha Thi Hien along a rail line in Lang Son connecting Hanoi and Beijing. Credit Justin Mott for The New York Times

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LANG SON, Vietnam — She was 14 when Chinese artillery fire echoed across the hills around her home in northern Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers swarmed across the border. She remembers sprinting with her parents through the peach trees, her waist-length hair flying, as they fled the invaders. They ran straight into the enemy.

Her mother was shot and killed in front of her; minutes later, her father was wounded. “I was horrified. I didn’t think I would survive. The bullets were flying all around. I could hear them and smell the gunfire,” said Ha Thi Hien, now 49, fluttering her hands so they grazed her head to show how close the bullets came on the first day of the short, brutal war.

The conflict between China and Vietnam in 1979 lasted less than a month. But the fighting was so ferocious that its legacy permeates the current sour relations between the two Communist countries now at odds over hotly contested waters in the South China Sea.

Both sides declared victory then, though neither side prevailed, and both armies suffered horrendous losses.

The gravestone of Ms. Hien’s mother, who was killed in the 1979 conflict with China. Ms. Hien’s father was wounded. Credit Justin Mott for The New York Times

If a war erupted over territorial rights and the recent positioning of a Chinese oil rig off the coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea, China, with its increasingly modernized navy, would likely win, military experts say. So in a situation some liken to that of Mexico astride the United States, Vietnam must exercise the art of living alongside a powerful nation, a skill it has practiced over several thousand years of intermittent occupation and more than a dozen wars with China.

But with China, far richer, militarily stronger and more ambitious than at any time the two countries have faced each other in the modern era, how far to needle Beijing, when to pull back, and how to factor in the United States are becoming trickier.

During the current tensions, the anti-Chinese sentiments of the Vietnamese people seem to have run ahead of the country’s ruling Politburo.

“People in Vietnam want to be outside China’s grip,” said Pham Xuan Nguyen, chairman of the Hanoi Literature Association, who protested against the oil rig outside the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi. “But the Vietnamese people are wondering what is the strategy of the government, and wondering if the government is really against China or compromising.”

In 2012, the United States secretary of defense, Leon E. Panetta, visited Cam Ranh Bay, the site of a major American base during the Vietnam War, but so far the Vietnamese military, still mindful of that war and years of antagonistic relations after it ended in 1975, has kept its distance.

Part of the aloofness is the result of a United States executive order that prohibits the sale of American weapons to Vietnam, a vestige of the Vietnam War. But Washington is showing increasing interest in lifting the ban, and the expected new United States ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, who is awaiting confirmation from the Senate, said in testimony last month that easing the embargo should be considered.

For the moment, Vietnam buys weapons mainly from Russia, Israel and India. It has taken delivery of two Kilo-class submarines from Russia, and has ordered four more. Japan has pledged to provide coast guard vessels. In a move intended to encourage Vietnam to accept more from Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry announced $18 million in nonlethal aid for Vietnam’s maritime security during a visit in December.

Vietnam does not expect, or want, intervention by the United States, said Dang Dinh Quy, president of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. “We don’t expect help from anyone,” he said. “We are confident we can do it ourselves. We will keep to current strategies of trying to prevent a clash, and if it happens we will try to deal with it. We welcome all users of the South China Sea as long as they are conducive to preserving peace, stability and a legal order in the region.”

The shadow of the 1979 war, ordered by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to punish Vietnam for its invasion of Cambodia, endures in places along the border. The memories are strong not only because of the death toll but also because the Chinese pummeled towns and villages as they withdrew, destroying schools and hospitals, in what the Chinese military later called a “goodbye kiss.”

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