NEW YORK: China’s ambassador to the United States warned Washington against “anti-China” alliances and a “Cold War mentality” as Beijing continued to ramp up its objections to US military activity in the South China Sea in advance of a weekend meeting of defence chiefs from the US and Asia.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ambassador Cui Tiankai said China’s recent expansion of reefs it claims in the Spratly Islands to include civilian navigation and some military facilities, which has spurred objections from neighbours worried that Beijing intends to militarise the strategically important region, a major maritime thoroughfare.

He sought, as other Chinese officials have in recent days, to tamp down the controversy over the area—known by the Chinese as the Nansha Islands—while putting the blame for it on the US government, which has called on China to stop its building activities and tone down its territorial ambitions there, the newspaper said in the report.

“It was very surprising to us that the US has overreacted to the situation and is escalating the situation,” Mr Cui said. “What the US is doing is giving rise to a lot of questions in China….What is the real intention? Is there an attempt to replay the Cold War in Asia?”

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2015

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