Hagel criticizes China's 'destabilizing' actions against its neighbors - Washington Post

SINGAPORE — China accused Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel of using threatening and unexpected language in a speech Saturday in which he criticized Chinese aggression in maritime disputes with its Asian neighbors.

Hagel’s remarks to an Asian security conference were “excessive beyond . . . imagination” and “suffused with hegemonism . . . threats and intimidation,” Lt. Gen. Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of staff of the Chinese military, said in remarks reported in the Chinese media.

At the beginning of a brief meeting with Hagel, Wang also referenced the secretary’s speech, saying Hagel’s criticisms were “groundless.”

U.S. defense officials said that Hagel had purposefully used strong language in the speech to criticize what he called China’s “destabilizing, unilateral actions” in pressing its control of air and sea lanes in the region. Most recently, China has overflown islands under Japanese administration in the East China Sea. Vietnam has also vigorously protested a Chinese claim to energy resources in the South China Sea.

A senior U.S. official said Hagel’s meeting with Wang, who leads China’s delegation at the Shangri-La Dialogue, was truncated because of scheduling concerns and lasted only about 20 minutes. While Wang was initially critical, the bulk of the discussion was “cooperative and amicable” and focused on improving U.S.-Chinese military-to-military cooperation, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the closed-door session.

The United States has called for China to settle its disputes in the area under international law.

While the United States has tried to straddle a line between criticizing Chinese aggression in the region and improving its own relations with Beijing, neighboring countries looking to the Obama administration for support in the disputes said they were encouraged by Hagel’s blunt public language.

“The feedback was very positive,” the defense official said, particularly on the subject of maritime disputes.

Hagel also met with Vietnam’s defense minister, Gen. Phung Quang Thanh. In a trilateral meeting with Japan and South Korea, officials said that Hagel pressed for more cooperation on a jointly operated missile defense program against North Korea.