CHINA-TERRITORIAL CLAIMS: SOUTH CHINA SEA
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On June 27, 2015, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was quoted by Reuters as saying that changing position on China's claims over the South China Sea would shame its ancestors, while not facing up to infringements of Chinese sovereignty there that would shame its children. He said "One thousand years ago China was a large sea-faring nation. So of course China was the first country to discover, use and administer the Nansha Islands. China's demands of sovereignty over the Nansha Islands have not expanded and neither will they shrink. Otherwise we would not be able to face our forefathers and ancestors." Wang Yi also said China could not face its children and grandchildren if "the gradual and incremental invasion of China's sovereignty and encroachment on China's interests" was allowed to continue. A day earlier, commenting on the remarks made by US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 26, 2015, describing China's island reclamation projects in the South China Sea as a "threat to peace and stability", the English-language official 'China Daily' warned that "China is absolutely firm in its resolve to defend its maritime territorial integrity. No matter what tricks Manila and Tokyo resort to, China will never change its stance on the maritime disputes in the East and South China seas, simply because its claims are legitimate".
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