China, US warn each other over islands

A top Chinese military official has denounced US "provocative" in the South China Sea, saying it does not fear "trouble" over the territorial dispute.

"We do not make trouble but we have no fear of trouble," Admiral Sun Jianguo, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission, said on Sunday.

He spoke one day after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned that Chinese construction on a South China Sea islet would prompt unspecified "actions" by the United States and other nations.

US Secretary of State John Kerry also warned Beijing on Sunday against setting up an air defense identification zone over the disputed waters, saying it would be a "provocative and destabilizing act."

The US has waded into the regional territorial dispute, conducting patrols near Chinese-held islands.

Addressing a security summit in Singapore, Sun charged that "some hegemonic countries have empowered small countries to make provocations against big countries."

"The South China Sea issue has become overheated because of the provocations of certain countries for their own selfish interests," he said.

Sun also urged countries outside the South China Sea region to play a “constructive role” in resolving the maritime dispute rather than the other way round.

ME