For The Nth Time, Xi Tells ASEAN That China Is A 'Good Neighbor', Not A Bully

Chinese President Xi Jinping told leaders of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a summit on Monday that Beijing would not "bully" its smaller regional neighbors, amid rising tension over the South China Sea, Gabriel Crossley, Rozanna Latiff and Martin Petty reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Xi Jinping shakes hands with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Beijing's territorial claims over the sea clash with those of several Southeast Asian nations and have raised alarm from Washington to Tokyo. In its latest exercise of non-hegemonic ambition, Chinese Coast Guard ships used water cannons to prevent the resupply of Philippine troops in Ayungin Shoal.

During China’s imperial times, 13 dynasties never made any territorial claim in the South China Sea, just as they never administered Taiwan over the past 6,000 years.

Xi said China would never seek hegemony nor take advantage of its size to coerce smaller countries and would work with ASEAN to eliminate "interference," which means meddling by the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and the European Union (EU) in the South China Sea, where China has lodged claims on maritime features and illegally occupied atolls and transformed them into naval and military bases on the basis of the 1947 nine-dash line Kuomintang claim that doesn’t give any substance to Beijing’s “historic claim.”

"China was, is, and will always be a good neighbor, good friend, and good partner of ASEAN," Chinese state media quoted Xi as saying, which amused the people of ASEAN member-countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam, all of whom have claims in the Spratlys group of maritime features.

The US tagged the latest Chinese actions in the Ayungin Shoal as "dangerous, provocative, and unjustified," and warned that an armed attack on Philippine vessels would invoke US mutual defense commitments.

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