China won’t allow sovereignty ‘fuss’: Xi

’COMPLEX AND SERIOUS’:China’s Taiwan Affairs Office minister said the year ahead would see uncertainty, while the Chinese president extended his New Year’s greetings

Reuters, BEIJING

China would never allow anyone to “make a great fuss” about its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in his New Year’s address, while China’s top official in charge of Taiwan ties warned of risks ahead this year.

China’s increasingly assertive moves to push its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea — including building artificial islands — have unnerved its neighbors.

“We adhere to peaceful development, and resolutely safeguard our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Xi said, in comments carried by state media late on Saturday.

“Chinese would never allow anyone to get away with making a great fuss about it,” he said, without elaborating.

China claims most of the South China Sea. Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have competing claims.

While Xi made no direct mention of Taiwan, aside from extending New Year’s greetings to Taiwanese, the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office in his New Year’s message said that this year would see uncertainty.

“Looking ahead to 2017, the situation in the Taiwan Strait is complex and serious, and the development of relations are facing many uncertain factors and risk,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) said, Xinhua news agency reported.

China hopes that people on both sides can show resolve and courage, to ensure the “correct direction” of the peaceful development of ties, and work to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, he added.

China’s military has become alarmed by what it sees as US president-elect Donald Trump’s support for Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the nation from moving toward independence, according to a media report citing sources with ties to senior military officers.