China urges U.S. to restrain frontline forces in nearby seas

BEIJING, April 29 (Reuters) - The Chinese defence ministry
urged the United States on Thursday to rein in its frontline
forces which Beijing has said have become more active in the air
and seas near China this year.
China has frequently maintained that a U.S. military
presence in the South China Sea, East China Sea and Taiwan
Strait is the main destabilising factor in the region. The
United States has said it has freedom of navigation in these
areas, which China regards as its geo-strategic backyard.
Since U.S. President Joe Biden U.S. took office in January,
operations of U.S. warships in the seas around China have risen
by 20%, while the activity of U.S. reconnaissance aircraft has
risen by 40% compared with last year, Chinese defence ministry
spokesman Wu Qian told a press briefing on Thursday.
"We urge the U.S. side to strictly restrain its frontline
forces, abide by regulations including the Rules of Behaviour
for Safety of Air and Maritime Encounters and International
Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, and prevent
similar dangerous incidents from happening again," Wu said.
The U.S. Navy earlier this month took the rare step of
publishing a photo on its main website of a U.S. guided missile
destroyer, the USS Mustin, watching China's Liaoning aircraft
carrier carry out an exercise.
Wu said the USS Mustin had interfered with the Chinese
exercise and threatened the freedom of navigation of both
vessels and the safety of their crews.
He said Chinese Navy ships warned away the Mustin and
Beijing had lodged a formal complaint to the United States over
the matter. "The aircraft carrier is no 'homebody'. It will
routinely train in seas further from its shore."
Biden has maintained a tough-on-China stance inherited from
the Trump administration. That has included more visible support
for Taiwan, angering China, which deems the island part of its
territory and sees Washington as giving succour to Taiwanese
seeking independence, a red line for Beijing.
Citing a $715 billion U.S. defense budget request which the
Biden administration has said will be used primarily to meet the
challenge of China, Wu said some U.S. officials suffer from
"persecutory delusion". He said "their hype" about an alleged
China threat could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Raising the stakes, China's Navy said for the first time in
early April that carrier drills near Taiwan would become
routine. Another U.S. warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait
two days after China's announcement.
A senior U.S. administration official said in mid-April that
regardless of who Beijing's incursions near Taiwan were aimed
at, their effect was direct "intimidation and coercion" of
Taipei.