Seeking to calm escalating tensions in the South China Sea, top generals from China and the US spoke by phone and said they were ready to work out an effective mechanism to prevent confrontation and maintain stability in the region.
Chinese Chief of the General Staff Fang Fenghui told Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford in a video conference Thursday that China values freedom of navigation "more than any other country in the world," according to a statement posted on the Defense Ministry's website.
While denying that Beijing was responsible for current tensions, Fang said China wanted to expand communication and cooperation with the US to prevent the issue impacting on the overall relationship.
"The common ground and prospects for cooperation between China and the US far exceed our disagreements and contradictions," Fang was quoted as saying.
China wants to take the big picture of China-US relations as the basis for approaching the South China Sea issue, Fang said.
The conversation followed a sharp verbal exchange following a US destroyer's sail-by past China's largest man-made island in a move to exercise freedom of navigation.
China said it deployed two navy fighter jets, one early warning aircraft and three ships to track and warn off the USS William P. Lawrence during as it sailed Wednesday within 22 kilometers of Fiery Cross Reef, the limit of what international law regards as an island's territorial sea.
The reef which used to be submerged at high tide for all but two rocks is now an artificial island with a long airstrip, harbor and burgeoning above-ground infrastructure.
It dwarfs all other features in the disputed area, was recently visited by China's military No. 2 and became prominent in the Chinese media when a famous singer of patriotic anthems entertained troops there.
