Does China know respect?

Beijing warned Washington against challenging China’s sovereignty following reports that the United States was to conduct naval patrols in the disputed South China Sea.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said that the tension in the South China Sea had stabilized due to hard work between China and the Southeast Asian countries, and he urged the United States and foreign nations to respect it. “We urge the US not to take any actions that challenge China’s sovereignty and security,” he added.

How about respecting the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration? Does China know what respect is? After all, it still claims most of the strategic waters. It has built, with audacity, on seven man-made islets in the contested Spratly chain, military grade airfields and antiaircraft and antimissile systems, regardless of the 2015 “word of honor” by which Chinese President Xi Jinping committed not to “militarize” the islands. Then why is China, with all its power,  too afraid that the United States is going to conduct naval patrols in the South China Sea?

DANA R. DEL ROSARIO, danadelrosario2@gmail.com