China slams Asean chief's remarks

Expressing “strong displeasure and stern condemnation”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Monday said the comments were “not consistent with the role of secretary-general, and are detrimental to the progress of China-Asean ties”.

“[Minh] has ignored the facts and violated Asean’s neutrality by unilaterally advocating another country’s stand and sending the wrong signal to the world,” he said. “We ask Asean to stay neutral and take practical actions to protect and maintain the development of the China-Asean relationship.” 

Three other Asean states – the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia – are also claimants to the South China Sea, which China claims as its own. 

China’s May 2 deployment of an oil rig in contested waters triggered anti-China riots across Vietnam last week, which left at least two Chinese nationals dead and scores injured.

Minh made the remarks to reporters last Friday at the Asean headquarters in Jakarta after a routine briefing. While the comments were not widely publicised then, analysts noted they made Minh, who is Vietnamese, the first Asean secretary-general to publicly “pick sides” by identifying disputed waters as Vietnam’s.  “We have to get China out of the territorial waters of Asean member states, which will be conducive to restoring confidence and... to progress in such formal consultations that we are looking to engage in with China,” Minh had told reporters.

Asked if he meant Vietnam’s territorial waters, he said “yes”.

Minh was formerly Vietnam’s deputy foreign minister. 

Jinan University Asean expert Zhang Mingliang said China does not view the South China Sea row as a China-Asean issue.

“Some say that this is to preserve its bargaining advantage with each of the states. But a more fundamental reason is that Asean is not, as a group, claiming any territory. So what is it talking to China about?”