BEIJING // China yesterday rebuffed a United States offer to host talks centred on the dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea.
Beijing described the US stance on the islands as "absolutely wrong", its latest rejection of attempts by Washington to mediate in regional territorial disputes.
While the US yesterday repeated its offer to host talks, analysts said China would be in a "one against two" situation if it took part.
The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China and also claimed by Taiwan, sparked a row last month when Japan held a Chinese trawlerman after his boat rammed two of its coastguard vessels in nearby waters.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu yesterday said "it is absolutely wrong for the United States to repeatedly claim" the islands come within the remit of a 1960 US-Japan security alliance requiring the US to defend Japan when its territory is attacked.
"What the United States should do is to immediately correct its wrong position," the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Mr Ma as saying.
He said it was "only the thinking of the US side" that there could be trilateral talks to resolve the dispute over the islands' sovereignty.
"The territorial dispute over the islands is an issue between China and Japan," Mr Ma added.
In the wake of last month's dispute over the islands, Japanese-Chinese relations plunged to their lowest point for several years and nationalist anger flared in both countries.
At a regional summit in Vietnam over the weekend, talks between Japan and China aimed at easing tensions descended into another series of angry public exchanges.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said Washington was prepared to host trilateral talks to resolve the dispute. She also said the US-Japan security treaty applied to the islands.
Yesterday, in the face of Beijing's rejection of the talks proposal, Mrs Clinton repeated the offer and said discussions should cover wider issues.
"There are many issues that need to be discussed, that I hope Japan and China will find an appropriate format in which to do so," she said.
"We will continue to maintain our position that we take no approach towards sovereignty over the islands but our interpretation of our security alliance with Japan has been consistent over many decades now."
Mrs Clinton's offer of talks is the latest of a series of moves by the US to stress its interest in mediating disputes in the region.
In October, the US secretary of defence, Robert Gates, said Washington had "long-term interests" in the region and would seek to be "an active participant" in security issues.
Mr Gates's comments, made in Hanoi, were seen as being aimed at reassuring the several Asian countries that have disputes with China over maritime territory. Many analysts have perceived a growing regional assertiveness from China as its economic strength funds the continued growth of its naval forces.
Beijing has insisted solutions must be thrashed out bilaterally with each of its much smaller neighbours, rather than through the involvement of the US and the Association of South-east Asian Nations.
In addition to its dispute with Japan in the East China Sea, China has conflicting claims with the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei over parts of the South China Sea, the whole of which Beijing claims as its own.
Many of the competing claims in both seas centre on energy-rich territory, while fishing rights and shipping lanes also loom large.
Beijing was similarly dismissive of an offer Mrs Clinton made in July for the US to mediate in the South China Sea.
It has also protested over joint US-South Korean naval exercises earlier this year.
According to Wong Yiuchung, a professor in the department of political science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, China "never totally trusts" the US, with many in the country thinking Washington is "trying to contain China".
"China is very afraid that the USA will be in alliance with Japan to pressurise China," he added.
"I think if talks started, China would be in a very unfavourable position: one against two."
dbardsley@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The%20specs
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
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The National's picks
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
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Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The bio
His favourite book - 1984 by George Orwell
His favourite quote - 'If you think education is expensive, try ignorance' by Derek Bok, Former President of Harvard
Favourite place to travel to - Peloponnese, Southern Greece
Favourite movie - The Last Emperor
Favourite personality from history - Alexander the Great
Role Model - My father, Yiannis Davos
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
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Rating: 3/5
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
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- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
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- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
