There are three reasons why China will not wage war over its territorial dispute in the South China Sea with Southeast Asian countries particularly the Philippines.
Chinese Ambassador to Manila Zhao Jianhua said it has always been China’s policy to settle disputes through peaceful negotiations.
“This policy is here today and it will remain unchanged in the future,” Ambassador Zhao told reporters in a briefing with a select number of local journalists. This is the first time that the Chinese ambassador openly spoke about the South China Sea dispute since he assumed post more than a year ago.
According to the top Chinese diplomat in Manila, one of the major reasons why China was able to develop so fast for nearly 40 years was not only due to those reform merits that the Chinese government implemented but also due to the benefits of a stable and peaceful regional environment.
“It is not in China’s interest at all to disrupt this favorable stable environment,” Zhao emphasized.
According to the Chinese envoy, those people who tend to think that China is just thinking about military solution to the South China Sea dispute are “so full of imagination.”
MANILA BULLETIN
