The U.S. toughened its stand on these matters before Hagel's China visit.

? When China declared its East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in November 2013, the U.S. refused to recognize it and immediately sent two bombers unannounced into the zone.

? On Jan. 31, 2014, Evan Medeiros, the senior director of Asian affairs on the U.S. National Security Council, rejected the legitimacy of China's East China Sea ADIZ and warned that if China declared an ADIZ over the South China Sea, "that would result in changes in [U.S.] presence and military posture in the region."

? In congressional testimony on Feb. 5, Donald Russel, who replaced Kurt Campbell as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, specifically and publicly rejected China's use of its "nine dash line" as a legitimate basis for China's territorial claim in the South China Sea, the first time a senior U.S. official has explicitly done so.

? On Feb. 13, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the U.S. chief of Naval Operations, told an audience at the Philippine National Defense College that the United States would come to the aid of the Philippines in the case of a hypothetical conflict with China over disputed claims in the South China Sea.

? On a Feb. 17 visit to Indonesia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listed China's recent "provocations" and called for the resolution of territorial claims based on existing international law.

How arrogant can Washington get? It is stirring up trouble in the South China Sea to contain China. Russel even cataloged "China's encroachments against Philippine and Vietnamese interests" when the truth is that of China's forty-three islands and reefs in South China Sea illegally occupied by foreign countries, Vietnam has twenty-nine and the Philippines has nine.

By supporting Japan's and the Philippines' illegal claims of territories that clearly belong to China, the U.S. is grossly underestimating China's resolve to defend is territorial integrity. As President Xi Jinping recently declared in Berlin: "China will not provoke trouble, but it does not fear trouble provoked by others. China stands firm on safeguarding national interests when it comes to sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Washington is playing with fire in Asia.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.h5a3.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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