Interview: U.S. tries to encircle China under navigation freedom pretext: Russian expert

The United States is trying to encircle China under the cover of declarations about the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, a Russian expert said Thursday.

"The United States continues its policy of encircling China in the southeast with the aim of minimizing the Chinese and establishing U.S. control over economic arteries," said Timofei Bordachev, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies of the Higher School of Economics national research university.

Washington has always opposed the emergence of special areas of interest of any country but its own in the world, the expert, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The United States Navy staged this year a series of so-called "freedom of navigation operations" close to Chinese waters, ahead of a July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague over a dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Beijing would not recognize any ruling of the arbitration and will firmly safeguard its own territorial sovereignty and legitimate maritime rights, as well as peace and stability in the region.

Possessing the most powerful navy, said Bordachev, Washington is attempting to create legal conditions for its presence in all oceans and seas.

The militarization of the South China Sea will actually mean an increased presence of the U.S. Navy in the region, as well as of its allies, primarily Britain and France, he said.

However, the expert believed that the U.S. is unlikely to be drawn into a military conflict with China because of the ambitions of the Philippines.

The whole world, including Russia, is deeply concerned with the tension in the South China Sea, and Moscow hopes that China and the relevant countries in the region could establish a friendly dialogue, the expert said. Endi