China seeks support for stance on S. China Sea, Senkaku issues

By Puy Kea
     HANOI, Oct. 29, Kyodo - China has been lobbying many states in the region to support its position in territorial disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea, especially nonclaimant states, ASEAN sources said Friday.
     The sources said China has been active to that end both prior to and during the ongoing meetings in Hanoi of leaders of the countries in Southeast Asia and outside the region, using various forms of assistance as inducements.
     Premier Wen Jiabao is tipped to meet bilaterally in the Vietnamese capital with the leaders of at least seven other countries as part of what some observers see as a lobbying blitz to win them over to China's position on the territorial disputes.
     In Thursday talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, for example, Wen thanked Cambodia for its firm position that the South China Sea issue should not be ''internationalized'' and should not dominate this week's meetings in Hanoi hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, on grounds that there are more pressing issues.
     According to Cambodian delegation officials, Wen offered Cambodia a 100 million yuan ($15 million) as grant for economic development. Some observers speculated whether the gift was in exchange for support of China's position.
     For several other countries too, China offers similar forms of assistances either in kind or in cash for what is called as economic development.
     China has in recent weeks been engaged in a row with Japan over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which are known to Chinese as the Diaoyu Islands.
     China has territorial disputes in the South China Sea with four ASEAN members -- Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia and Brunei -- which partly involve overlapping claims to the Spratly Islands.
     The territorial disputes, and concerns over increased Chinese assertiveness, have been overshadowing this week's various meetings of senior officials, ministers and leaders in Hanoi.
     In addition to meetings with Vietnam, as the host of the meetings, Wen and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi have met or will meet with Laos, Cambodia, South Korea, Singapore and Australia, and likely also Japan.
     ASEAN sources said China was angered at Vietnam after it chaired the ASEAN Regional Forum in July in which the South China Sea issue was raised with greater involvement of the United States in the discussion. China insists any talks on the issue to be limited to the claimant states, preferably on a bilateral basis.
     Since then, the issue was also discussed during the ASEAN-U.S. Summit in New York and at the ASEAN Defense Ministers Plus Eight meeting in Hanoi, further irritating China, they said.
     China is also wary of signs that he United States has been encouraging Japanese involvement in the matter, one source said.
ASEAN groups Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei and Myanmar.
==Kyodo