China, US generals to work out mechanism for South China Sea

BEIJING (AP) — Seeking to quiet raising pressures in the South China Sea, top officers from China and the U.S. talked by telephone and said they were prepared to work out a successful system to anticipate meeting and keep up solidness in the district.

Chinese Chief of the General Staff Fang Fenghui told Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford in a video gathering Thursday that China values flexibility of route "more than some other nation on the planet," as indicated by an announcement posted on the Defense Ministry's site.

While denying that Beijing was in charge of current pressures, Fang said China needed to extend correspondence and collaboration with the U.S. to keep the issue affecting on the general relationship.

"The shared view and prospects for collaboration amongst China and the U.S. far surpass our differences and disagreements," Fang was cited as saying. China needs to take the comprehensive view of China-U.S. relations as the premise for drawing nearer the South China Sea issue, Fang said.

The discussion took after a sharp verbal trade taking after a U.S. destroyer's sail-by past China's biggest man-made island in a move to practice flexibility of route.

FILE - In this May 6, 2016, file photo, soldiers from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy watch as the USS Blue Ridge arrives at a port in Shanghai. Seeking to calm escalating tensions in the South China Sea, top generals from China and the U.S. spoke by phone Thursday, May 12, 2016, and said they were ready to work out an effective mechanism to prevent confrontation and maintain stability in the region. (AP Photo, File)

China said it sent two naval force contender planes, one early cautioning airplane and three boats to track and caution off the USS William P. Lawrence amid as it cruised Wednesday inside 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of Fiery Cross Reef, the farthest point of what global law sees as an island's regional ocean.

The reef — which used to be submerged at high tide for everything except two rocks — is currently a fake island with a long airstrip, harbor and thriving over the ground base. It overshadows all different elements in the debated range, was as of late went by China's military No. 2 and got to be conspicuous in the Chinese media when a well known vocalist of enthusiastic hymns entertained troops there.

China said such "provocative activities" advocated it in boosting "all classifications of military limit working" on its island fortifications in the South China Sea.

In Washington, White House representative Josh Earnest said on Thursday that such "pure section" travels were normal missions expected just to fortify the Navy's determination to "fly, work, and sail anyplace that worldwide law permits."

"What's more, we unquestionably would prefer not to see the strains expand, in view of the danger that that could posture to the broad trade that is led in that area of the world," Earnest said.

China has looked to reinforce its case to practically the whole South China Sea by building new islands, for example, Fiery Cross Reef on coral outcroppings, adding to them airstrips, harbors and military base. The U.S. declines to perceive the new elements as getting a charge out of the legitimate privileges of normally happening islands, keeping in mind it takes no formal position on sway claims, demands that all countries appreciate the privilege to openly sail and fly through the deliberately key region.
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This story has been rectified to demonstrate that Earnest is White House, not State Department representative.

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