UPDATE: South China Sea dispute remains top priority for Washington- US secretary of state John Kerry meets Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing on Feb. 14, 2014. (Photo/CNS) Recent talks between visiting US secretary of state John Kerry and Chinese leaders indicate that tensions in the South China Sea remain the top China issue for Washington, reports Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese. Kerry arrived in Beijing on Friday and met separately with Chinese president Xi Jinping and premier Li Keqiang. During Kerry's 70-minute meeting with Xi, the two leaders reportedly discussed pressing issues such as North Korea, which Kerry later told reporters China was willing to put more pressure on to make Pyongyang abandon its nuclear program. Washington's main concern, however, is not North Korea as the two countries have already reached a consensus on how to move toward with the problem, Duowei said, adding that Kerry's primary objective was in fact to try and assert the US position over China's ongoing dispute with Japan over ownership of the Diaoyutai (Diaoyu to China, Senkaku to Japan) islands in the South China Sea. As US president Barack Obama intends to push on with talks involving the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal among the 12 negotiating countries, Washington does not want any regional conflicts to destabilize the situation, Duowei said. During the meeting, Kerry reportedly told Xi that Washington is hoping for better transparency in the South China Sea to reduce possible "misinterpretations." Kerry added that he believes China is ready to establish a code of conduct for the volatile region following its discussions with the Association of South East Asian Nations. "That would help reduce tensions that stem from the territorial and maritime disputes and, in the meantime, it's very important that everybody build crisis management tools and refrain from coercive or unilateral measures to assert whatever claims any country in the region may have," he said. The two leaders also discussed China's planned new air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, which Kerry made clear that Washington thought was a bad idea. "We have made it very clear that a unilateral, unannounced, unprocessed initiative like that can be very challenging to certain people in the region, and therefore to regional stability," he said, adding that the advice was not limited to just China. Kerry had made similar remarks last year when China set up a similar air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, where it is embroiled in a territorial dispute with the Philippines over the Spratly islands.｜Politics｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com

CLICK LINK TO READ: South China Sea dispute remains top priority for Washington｜Politics｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com: "China's foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement that Beijing agrees that the South China Sea dispute should be settled through international law but warned Washington against exacerbating the situation.

"The United States is not a direct party in the South China Sea dispute and should keep its commitment of not taking sides on issues of territorial sovereignty and be cautious in words and actions," Hua said."



'via Blog this'