Pacific Ocean pact reports are sunk

By Xiao Huo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-22 08:13

The Foreign Ministry Thursday poured cold water on reports that claimed China had suggested to the US that the two nations divide the Pacific Ocean between them.

US Pacific Command chief Admiral Timothy Keating was quoted last Friday by Indian media as saying a high-ranked Chinese military officer had suggested a pact between the countries that called for China to look after the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii while the US would look after the ocean east of the islands that are also the headquarters of the US Pacific Command.

The Admiral claimed in Indian media that he "shot down the offer".

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu Thursday said China did not and will not raise such a "proposal" to anyone.

A Chinese military source, who declined to be named, told China Daily it was "unwise" for such a high-ranked US military officer to make such provocative comments.

"If the Indian media quoted him correctly, I would say that it was the intention of a small group of people in the US to magnify China's supposed threat before one of its most important neighbors," the source said.

The Foreign Ministry said China will firmly adhere to the track of peaceful development, pursue an independent policy of peace and a national defense policy which is purely defensive in nature.