China says has stopped reclamation work in South China Sea

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that Beijing had halted land reclamation in the South China Sea, and called on countries in the region to speed up talks on how claimant states should conduct themselves in the disputed waters.

In June, China had said it would soon complete some of its reclamation on the Spratly islands in the South China Sea.

The minister's remarks at a regional meeting in Kuala Lumpur appeared designed to defuse tensions with other countries who lay claim to parts of the sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

Beijing claims most of the waters, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/05/us-asean-malaysia-idUSKCN0QA05U20150805

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1. John Kerry urges Beijing to halt South China Seas operations

ohn Kerry, the US secretary of state, delivered a “blunt” message urging Beijing to halt its aggressive programme of artificial island construction in the disputed South China Seas during talks with his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday.

Mr Kerry made the remarks to Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, at the start of a summit that will be dominated by the dispute over the strategic waters, despite Beijing’s objections to the issue being raised.

America’s top diplomat said that while Washington did not take a position on sovereignty claims, it wanted to see them resolved peacefully under international law.

South East Asian nations backed America’s calls while China countered that the United States was “militarising” the region’s waters.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11784939/John-Kerry-urges-Beijing-to-halt-South-China-Seas-operations.html