China Affirms Sovereignty Amid US Pressure on Island Dispute

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi rebuked US State Secretary John Kerry's effort to limit what the US has called "manufacturing sovereignty" in the South China Sea.

China refused to back down to US Secretary of State John Kerry's demands that the country stops land reclamation on islands in the South China Sea.

The United States has been increasingly critical of China's activities in the South China Sea, which have included building up artificial islands in the area disputed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries. China does not consider the United States a party to the South China Sea dispute.

"I would like to reaffirm that China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity is as hard as a rock," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

China considers infrastructure improvements on islands in the South China Sea within its sovereign rights. Other countries involved in the dispute have also built up infrastructure and land reclamation efforts on islands.

"The United States has for long turned a blind eye to some other claimants' large-scale schemes to "manufacture sovereignty" — as senior U.S. diplomat Daniel Russel recently accused China of doing — on Chinese sovereign islands," state news agency Xinhua said in a commentary.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was also in Beijing on Saturday to discuss climate change ahead of a summit on the issue in Paris.