By COLIN CLARK
WASHINGTON: In a strikingly vigorous and bipartisan letter 03-19-15_Joint letter to Kerry and Carter (PDF) to President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Ash Carter, the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees says China actions violate regional agreements and pose a threat to both US, allied and broad international interests.
The letter says the US should develop a strategy that includes measures we can take to “slow down or stop China’s reclamation activities in the South China Sea; whether we should release intelligence about these activities more frequently; should the US stop certain types of security cooperation with China if they don’t stop what’ they’re doing; and what the US can do diplomatically and in other venues to influence China’s behavior.
The authors are careful to say they agree with Obama that China “can and should play a constructive role” in the region and globally, but the way they phrase the island issue — “China’s coercive peacetime behavior” — makes clear they don’t think building these islands is constructive.
Read the full story at Breaking Defense