South China Sea News: China Slams Singapore For Backing PH
The Paracels and the Spratlys are two island chains being debated about by the neighbor countries (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
Singapore was recently involved in South China Sea news, not for being one of the countries who wanted to place their claim over the disputed islands but for allegedly backing the Philippines.
A Chinese general slammed Singapore for supposedly giving their support to the Philippines in this legal altercation over some areas in the South China Sea. The general added that Beijing must articulate its “discontent” with discipline.
Jin Yinan is the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Major General. In an interview, said that Singapore has been heightening tensions in Southeast Asia and is damaging China’s national interests. This declaration follows a report made by Chinese publicaton, Global Times, which says Singapore backed Manila in the standoff with Beijing at the recent Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.
Looking more into Singapore’s involvement
The Chinese newspaper reported that the Singaporean delegation was “infuriated” when host and NAM’s current president, Venezuela refused to include the island dispute issue in the organization’s agenda.
Subsequently, Singapore’s ambassador to China, Stanley Loh came out with a refutal of the report, saying it is an “irresponsible” falsification that does not have factual basis.
“Contrary to the claim fabricated by the Global Times, the Singapore delegation did not raise the South China Sea or the tribunal ruling at the NAM Summit,” Loh said in a statement. Nevertheless, the Chinese publication did not retract their report, and stood firm that that their source was “serious and reliable“. Allegedly, by pushing for the issue of territorial disputes, Singapore is intentionally fuelling the standoff between China and the United States in the region.
Singapore has been rallying to have the issue included
Singapore has been pressing for the of inclusion of the issue of the South China Sea for some time, Last year, Singapore Prime Minster Lee Hsien Loong spent an hour at the Asia Security Summit to give a lecture to emphasize the concern.
“There are so many topics about Asian security, including unbalanced development, pollution, environment, climate, terrorism, racial problems… But all the problems were ignored and the focus was just on China’s South China Sea disputes,” according to MG Jin.
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