BEIJING — China’s top diplomat, emerging from talks here with Secretary of State John Kerry, suggested Saturday that Beijing had no intention of scaling back island-building efforts in the South China Sea that have aggravated tensions in waters claimed by a number of neighboring governments.
At a news conference, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Chinese claims to a collection of uninhabited reefs off the coast of the Philippines were “unshakable,” suggesting that Kerry’s message that China help reduce tensions in the region had fallen on deaf ears.
“The determination of the Chinese side to safeguard our own sovereignty and territorial integrity is as firm as a rock,” Wang said.
Kerry, on his fifth visit to China as secretary of state, is ostensibly here to discuss plans for a White House summit meeting between President Obama and President Xi Jinping, and an annual gathering of Chinese and American officials that is scheduled for next month in Washington.
During talks Saturday morning, the two men said they had covered a range of issues that both sides have cooperated on in the past: climate change, Iran’s nuclear program, and improved military relations between Washington and Beijing.
“There is no question but that our nations share extraordinary opportunities that are looking at us as we build the history of this century,” Kerry said.
“We have a lot to accomplish together in the coming years. As two of the world’s major powers and largest economies, we have a profound opportunity to set a constructive course on a wide range of issues that will affect everybody all across this planet.”
But China’s escalated dredging efforts in the South China Sea, which began after Xi took power three years ago, have become an increasingly nettlesome issue for Washington. Although the United States does not have a position on the overlapping territorial claims by China and five other governments, it says it is committed to freedom of navigation in the area, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The most recent surge of land reclamation in the atolls and outcroppings known as the Spratlys is 1,000 miles from China’s southernmost point, Hainan Island, but just off the coast of the Philippines, a US ally.
Recent satellite images show the Chinese have vastly expanded a number of reefs in the Spratlys, and that they are building a concrete runway on one island capable of handling military aircraft.
State Department officials said last week that Kerry would deliver a tough message to Chinese leaders, although his public comments Saturday were subdued.