China has urged the United States to end military surveillance operations in its coastal waters, but a US official said Friday that Washington’s policies were unchanged.
“The constant US air and sea surveillance and survey operations in China’s exclusive economic zone is the root cause of problems between the navies and air forces of China and the US,” China’s defence ministry said in a statement.
“The way to resolve China-US maritime incidents is for the US to change its surveillance and survey operations policies against China, and decrease and eventually stop such operations,” the statement said.
The request came during two days of talks this week in Beijing between the two militaries on maritime issues, said the statement, posted on the ministry website early Friday.