South China Sea Not a ‘Safari Park’ for Countries Outside the Region, Chinese Foreign Minister Says

Beijing has been consistent in its criticism of the US and other Western navies for carrying out freedom of navigation exercises (FONOPs) in nearby waters, including in the South China Sea.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reject outside interference in the South China Sea, saying that it isn’t a “safari park” for governments outside the region, Chinese state media reported.

Wang made the remarks at an online symposium to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea, the first official document calling for a resolution of the SCS dispute at a regional level.

Wang said that the countries of the region are the “real masters” in dealing with their disputes in the South China Sea: “in the process of implementing the DOC, we have always followed the Asian tradition of mutual respect and keeping promises, abandoning the zero-sum mindset, which has manifested the great value and vitality of the declaration.”

Wang said that “extraterritorial powers” are deliberately provoking conflict in the region for the purpose of maintaining their “hegemony”, suggesting that the governments of states outside the region should only be welcomed if they intend to promote “peace and cooperation”.

His remarks came ahead of a crucial meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indonesian President Joko Widodo this week. Indonesia is the headquarters of ASEAN and its most influential economy.

The US and its Asia-Pacific allies, including Japan and Australia, have charged that Beijing is making “illegal claims” in the South China Sea and East China Sea, where Beijing is involved in maritime disputes with several of its neighbors —Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

In a major speech at Singapore’s Shangri-la Dialogue last month, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that there had been an “alarming increase in the number of unsafe aerial intercepts and confrontations at sea” by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and vessels.

Austin’s allegations about an increasing number of encounters in the region were echoed by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who is currently on a visit to the Asia-Pacific region.

During a stopover in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Milley accused Beijing of becoming more “aggressive” in its behavior, not only in the South and East China Seas, but across the Asia-Pacific region.

The findings of the "Global Posture Review" (GPR) ordered by the Biden administration last year marked the Indo-Pacific as the “priority region” for Washington in the coming years, as it recognized the “pacing threat” from Beijing.