China hits back at US, Japan

The deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, Lieutenant General Wang Guanzhong, on Sunday told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that speeches at the summit by top US and Japanese officials were "a provocative action" against China.

Departing from prepared remarks, Wang accused Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel of coordinating with one other to attack China in their speeches held on Friday and Saturday respectively.

"They supported each other, they encouraged each other and they took the advantage of speaking first at the Shangri-La Dialogue and staged provocative action and challenges against China," he said.

Both Abe and Hagel criticized China in their addresses, accusing it of "destabilizing unilateral action" and not abiding by the "rule of law" as it tries to assert maritime territorial claims.

Wang accused Abe of not living up to the "spirit of this dialogue," and described Hagel's speech as being "full of hegemony, full of words of threat and intimidation."

China is involved in several disputes with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam over contested territories in both the East and South China Seas.

Tensions with Hanoi have flared after a Vietnamese fishing boat was sunk last week near a controversially sited Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea, with each side blaming the other for the incident.

tj/hc (dpa, AFP)