Zhao Qizheng, former minister of China's State Council Information Office, speaks at the Think Tank Seminar on South China Sea and Regional Cooperation and Development on Monday in Singapore. (Deng Zhiwei / Xinhua)
The United States has dispatched 10 of the country's total 11 aircraft carriers to Asia to carry out military operations in the past year, which has caused great anxiety to China, said Zhao Qizheng, former minister of the State Council Information Office, the country's top international publicity agency.
Zhao made the remarks at a press conference on Tuesday in Singapore during a think tank seminar over the South China Sea issue. China announced on Monday that it will close off access to part of the South China Sea for military drills from Tuesday to Thursday.
Mentioning that military exercises involve large expenses, Zhao said that China doesn't want to carry out such large-scale military drills, and it has done so only because the U.S., Japan and the Philippines are provoking China continuously.
"The U.S., Japan and the Philippines have carried out actions, and we responded with reactions. It's just like the rules of the physics," he said.
Given that Beijing refused to accept the ruling of unilaterally launched arbitration, China and the Philippines should carry out talks in areas such as joint developing fishery, natural resources and maritime rescue, he proposed.
