China pushes back after Tillerson warns on South China Sea

While China’s foreign ministry issued a relatively measured response to the remarks, the threat from former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief Rex Tillerson raises the prospect of a more antagonistic U.S. approach to Beijing’s military buildup in the area. In recent years China has reclaimed thousands of acres of land and shooed away boats from other claimant states like the Philippines and Vietnam.

Hours into a confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tillerson compared China’s actions to those of Russia in Crimea, saying a failure to respond had allowed it to “keep pushing the envelope” in the South China Sea. “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that first the island-building stops and second your access to those islands is also not going to be allowed.”

China has been acting within the limits of its sovereignty, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in response. “Like the U.S., China has the right within its own territory to carry out normal activities,” he said at a regular briefing in Beijing.