U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Shangri-La security conference in Singapore this weekend that the impending United Nations tribunal verdict on the South China Sea is “an opportunity for China” to recommit to “diplomacy and to lowering tensions, rather than raising them,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Chinese military leaders in attendance were having none of it. Admiral Sun Jianguo insisted China is a victim of bullying by its smaller neighbors and the U.S., as the arbitration case was filed by the Philippines, a U.S. ally. Admiral Guan Youfei, director of foreign affairs for China’s Defense ministry, flatly dismissed the arbitration as illegal. “We do not participate in it nor accept it.”
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